


Death To The Avatar

by Raspien



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Difficult Decisions, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:35:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22588012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raspien/pseuds/Raspien
Summary: In a bleak, oppressive and totalitarian world: these unlikely heroes find themselves on a journey to face their destiny (or die trying).
Kudos: 2





	Death To The Avatar

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SatoK](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SatoK/gifts).



**Death to the Avatar**

A tired sun slowly sets on a dusty horizon, signalling the end of a long day of hard work in Houwen. The smell of a home-made meal could be sensed by every fisherman tying their rickety rafts to the quay, knowing that soon they would be home and warm with their loved ones. Houwen was an easterly village, lining the shores and surrounded by endless countryside, worlds away from the buzzling cities and techno centres. The Regimes reach and influence was endless but somehow; here in this shady corner of the world, its grip had begun to loosen. Political posters and notices shared equal wall space with local baked goods for sale and party advertisements.

Children giggled and played in the tattered streets, awaiting the call from their mothers to rush inside for the family gathering. Many would grow old here and raise children of their own, passing on the skills that were once handed down to them.

Zac was not a fisherman like most of the young men his age, instead he had pursued his passion for painting and worked hard commissioning billboards and shop signs across the village. Almost every doodle or non-political poster in the village had been painted by him and so his designs had become the very heart of Houwen. He was proud of his posters, but what made him happiest were his portraits, particularly of his wife Lena. She was the baker’s daughter and was the most beautiful and brilliant creature he would ever meet. What little money they had was often syphoned to the Regime in taxes. Life was not easy, but Zac could not have been happier.

An unusual hum caught Zac’s ear as he traversed the streets home to his wife and child. Stopping to listen further, Zac located the sound at the entrance to the village. A large vehicle was approaching. He followed the noise to a piazza at the entrance to the village where a large black truck thundered through the entranceway and screeched to a halt. Dust shot up from under the vehicle, blanketing the entire area in a thick yellow haze. Zac coughed and spluttered his way closer, realising that a small crowd had gathered to greet the truck. What could this be? Zac was sure there were no taxes due or deliveries expected today. An all too familiar symbol of a golden eye could be found glaring back at all on-lookers from every side of the truck. Even before the heavy-duty doors of the truck would swing open: Zac dropped everything and bolted to his house. The Regime was here.

Bursting in the small shack that Zac had called home, Lena smiled and moved forward to embrace him. Her pace stopped when she saw her husband’s colourless face.

“Honey…what’s wrong?”, she asked as Zac hastily began searching around the room.

He barely heard her, “Where is Zhana?” he blurted.

“He is sleeping, why?”. Before Zac could answer her, the sound of soldiers calling, and yelling began to rattle against the walls. “Oh no…Are they here because…”

Zac leaned behind a stack of boxes and found a red blanket bundled around his sleeping 5-year-old son. Zhana slowly opened his eyes and stretched.

“Papa…you are home…”.

Zac hoisted the young child, still draped in his warm red blanket, out from behind the boxes. Lena was terrified but was managing to compose herself. She had prepared for this. Using a small prying tool, she managed to dislodge two loose floorboards into a dark crawl space below. Zac lowered his son into the subterranean darkness before turning to the door. They had already began banging at it, demanding entry.

“Zhana, my son…” Lena said, holding back the tears in her eyes, “…you have to crawl now. Mummy will come meet you when you come out. I love you; I love you more than anything”.

Zhana was unable to speak, he simply sat hunched in his hole, staring up at his mothers frightened eyes and she sealed the floorboards back up above him. Total darkness.

Zac opened the door and let the soldiers in. He pretended that he thought they were knocking on a neighbour’s door and attempted to laugh off the misunderstanding as a joke. The soldiers were not laughing, they were instead throwing furniture aside and smashing plates to clear way. Lena did not scream, she stood and stared at the door as a tall, robed figure entered the house.

The soldiers ceased their savagery and aligned themselves around the robed figure in attention. Zhana could barely make out the man’s features but it was clear that he was of immaculate wealth and authority. Even Zhana’s parents seemed speechless in the man’s aura.

His straight black hair was of a length impossible to determine as it melted into the thick blackness of his ornate robes. The dark colours of his garb were only broken by the occasional golden eye, masterfully woven into the drooping sleeves and back.

He spoke softly but with a firmness that none would question.

“You know why we are here. There is a curse upon this house”.

Zac stood by his wife, trying not to look down at his frozen son below. “There’s…no curse here, I can assure you…”

“It would seem that your neighbours have an honesty that you lack. They have spoken of the cursed child. As you know, I am bestowed by divine power to protect this great nation and I will complete my duties”.

Zac recognised Warden Zhenfeng from televised appearances and political posters. It would be of the highest honour to host a Warden in one’s own home, families would brag and gossip about it for years after. Lena had no intention of showing this intruder any hospitality, her thoughts turned to her cursed son and the soldiers loading him into the truck. She had barely comprehended her actions as she reached for the frying pan on the stove. It was searing atop the flames, emanating sweet and beautiful flavours for dinner. She knew the soldiers had no intention of letting them go without the child. She took a lightning fast swing and connected the burning steel into the side of Zhenfengs face.

He screamed in agony and recoiled to the ground.

“Get back! Freeze!” yelled the armoured, gun wielding squadron as they aimed for Lena’s head. Before Zac could intervene, Zhenfeng gathered his composure and thrust out his right arm toward Lena. A tornado erupted from his arm, blowing loose paper and cloth outwards toward the wall. The wind hit Lena like a steam train, instantly snapping the vulnerable bones in her neck. Her lifeless body flew across the room and crumbled on the floor. Zac turned and screamed in horror.

The sound had barely left his mouth when it was instantly silenced. He began to gasp and clutch at his throat as the air began to leave his nose and mouth. Zhenfeng smiled, twirling his finger to manipulate the air from Zac’s lungs whilst holding his left hand firmly against the wounded side of his face. Zac tumbled around the room as his gasps drew less and less oxygen, he tugged at a nearby soldiers’ uniform for help but was instead shoved onto the floor. He rolled over and stared through the cracks into his sons’ wide eyes. Zhana could not look away as his father, only an inch of wood away from him, stared with increasingly cold and bleeding eyes. Blood began to seep through the floorboards onto Zhana’s face. The warm, salty sensation seemed completely ineffective at awakening Zhana from his terrified trance. His knuckles turned white with the intense hold he had applied to his blanket. He was frozen forever, and soon the soldiers would find him.

_“Child…”_

Zhana’s focus shifted.

_“…Child…you must crawl…”_

The voice was not his mothers, though it shared her advice. It was a deep voice, buried deep within his mind. Zhana had barely noticed his hands and legs fumbling into motion until he had long since left the area under his house. Through crawl spaces and pipes and sewers he crawled, leading to a storm drain deep within the nearby forest. It would be from here, that he would watch the town he loved; burn until nothing was left.

-

The busy city street shook so hard that civilians had to brace themselves against nearby lampposts and road signs. Yen felt the axels beneath the vehicle she was riding in bounce and scrape as they compensated to the shaking.

‘Another earthquake…’ she thought. Yen had only been in Sanctum 1 for a week and had already grown used to the phenomena. Citizens had informed her of how bad the quakes had gotten in recent years. Terrorist bombings were a frequent and terrifying occurrence in the city, but many citizens had become to accept the destruction from the quakes as just one more aspect of city of life.

She was sat uncomfortably in the back of a large Regime security truck made entirely from black steel. The cabin was illuminated by a thin haze of light oozing from the pink neon glow of the interior lights. Flashes of street lights would rhythmically brush over her surroundings, creeping in through a small window near her seat. She was secured to her position by glowing energy bracelets, bolting her legs to the seat but with some careful manoeuvring, she could get a nice view of the outside world.

It always surprised her how quickly the citizens recovered from a powerful earth quake. Most just dusted themselves off, picked up their dropped belongings and carried on with their day. Less than a minute had passed and already it was as if nothing had happened at all. It was around 2am last time she had checked, a time that she usually associated with darkness and cold, but Sanctum 1 was different. In Sanctum 1, the night was when the city truly came alive. Yen hadn’t seen the sky or the stars since arriving, the buildings too tall and the pollution too thick but it became clear that this city didn’t need them. It’s endless barrage of pink and purple neon signs was its moonlight and the endless horizon of city lights were its stars.

Hover crafts flood the sky ways between buildings, carefully regulated to dedicated pathways and junctions whilst clunky motor vehicles trundled along on the city streets below. Hover crafts were mostly driven by the elite classes and Regime officials, only the poorer citizens (and Regime security coming to arrest them) would use the old road ways anymore.

Up amongst the skyscrapers is wear the elite classes and Regime officials were partying and cavorting but the streets outside of Yen’s tiny window showed a different Sanctum 1, the _real_ Sanctum 1. The elegant robes, suits and party dresses were replaced with leather and denim jackets studded with cyber implants. Many of the citizens spent most of their day jacked into the Pleasure Sphere – a cyber world filled with all sorts of entertainment and debauchery designed to keep users occupied and busy. Yen could see various civilians jacked in already, sitting zombified on the pavement or zonked out in a shady café booth where they will stay for many hours to come. There was a clear correlation between the docile, fatigued behaviour exhibited by citizens who dedicate most of their day to the medium. Less for the Regime to contend with.

This was important because the Regime were plenty busy as it is. In a short stretch of city blocks, Yen had witnessed Regime troops storm apartment blocks and shops, busting down doors and flashing guns all over. Moments later they would emerge with a collection of citizens, bonded with the same energy bracelets Yen found herself. They too would soon find themselves loaded into a black truck, headed to an unclear destination. Yen had heard rumours of the constant raids, arrests and executions but wasn’t prepared for how consistent and common they were here.

She felt the truck grind to a halt with its engine still trundling away. Probably stopped at a red light. This allowed her time to watch a digital broadcast on a nearby street holoscreen. Similar holoscreens could be found all over the city, some draping the entire face of a skyscraper. The Great Voice of the Avatar and her Regime could be heard on every street of every borough in Sanctum 1.

It was a news report, a repeating story Yen had seen and heard multiple times that day, so much so that she briefly found herself mouthing along to the script. Yen couldn’t understand why they would need to replay the same broadcast so many times, there surely couldn’t be anyone who had missed it all those times on all those screens?

“Good evening citizens of Sanctum 1 and may the Avatar bless us on this glorious day…” said a cheery-smiled female anchor, her hair tied up in an elaborate and professional fastening. She wore a brightly coloured pink blazer with exaggerated padded shoulders making her appear almost triangular. 

“…Sanctum 1 experienced yet more black outs and earth quakes this week, but citizens are keeping their spirits up…”. The footage changed to show clearly-staged images of smiling citizens carrying groceries and giggling children. “…The Glorious Avatar Herself released a statement explaining that these horrible events are a direct result of increased terrorist activity aimed at honest citizens. The Blood Lotus group have claimed responsibility for multiple horrific attacks across the country. The Avatar also assured us that she, along with her four mighty Wardens are closing in on the terrorist leader Rufus…”. Yen immediately recognised the all-too familiar mugshot of Rufus – head of the Blood Lotus. His weathered face and long white hair house a pair of dark, menacing eyes. Yen had seen the same photograph plastered on wanted posted all over the city. His face and name had become so famous that citizens would often cuss his name in reaction to an earth quake, explosion or power outage.

The news broadcast ended soon after and was immediately followed by another overly-replayed public service message from the Regime. Exciting graphics and images began to appear alongside charts and data whilst a strong, confident voice over began to sound. “Could you or someone you know be cursed? If you have seen evidence of cursed activity, then please tell a member of Regime security today…”. The footage switched to grainy stock footage of sinister looking cursed-people. Some were able to manipulate water; some fire and others gusts of wind. They all seemed to be committing some sort of crime be it a robbery or violent attack. The footage concluded with Regime soldiers in shining armour arriving and arresting them to the cheers of the civilians around them. “…Remember, the Glorious Avatar fights everyday to protect her people from the growing threat of the demons but she needs your help! If you see something, report it! Long Live the Avatar”. Yen shuddered, she knew all too well what happened to cursed individuals: the gas chambers and burial pits were imprinted images from her childhood.

Older generations often spoke of how bad the cursed one’s problem used to be back in their day. Nowadays, the Regime is far more equipped to deal with the issue, so much so that many kids could go their entire lives without seeing any cursed activity. To them, and to many others, the very idea of cursed ones was becoming nothing more than a fairy tale. Special scanners had been set up in every town and city across the country that would instantly recognise someone. This means that any known cursed ones couldn’t run very far, they would be tracked every step of the way.

As the vehicle trundled on, Yen could see that she was nearing her destination. The bright lights of the city were slowly dimming and quieting as they entered a far more derelict sector. They were approaching Tong Prison and work camp. The older parts of the city were mostly darkened ruins but in recent years the Regime have made efforts to clear them up for habitation. A method for doing this was forced labour using criminals, it only made sense to house the Sector’s prison there. For most, this was a death sentence: either by being worked to death, killed by another prisoner or ‘processed’ if they were discovered to be cursed. Yen was deterred though. Yen _wanted_ to be here. A petty act of graffiti was all it took for her to get this far (spraying the Blood Lotus sigil on the side of a ration distribution centre). A necessary act to get into Tong and complete her goal. A lot could go wrong in that time, she knew that but, being locked up in the back of Regime truck, driving toward one of the worst places in the city: she knew there was no turning back now.

-

The scanners buzzed and whirred as Yen was shuffled through processing. She counted 4 separate times that she was photographed, scanned and registered but accepted the fact that many more hidden gadgets might be processing her from the shadows. She wasn’t worried about what data they would find, her profile would be bare: name, hometown, date of birth. This was quite normal for individuals who hadn’t lived in the city however more and more small towns and villages were slowly falling into the Regimes observation network. Soon they would need to take blood samples, she knew that this would be her undoing and so she would have to move fast.

Yen was being processed in a long line of other delinquents. She recognised them all as the standard leather clad punks and street kids that she has seen littering the various clubs and dens of Sanctum 1 during her visit. In front of her stood a tall man in a blue denim jacket with torn-off sleeves brandishing a red bandana to hold up his brown tussled bed hair. She noticed his bruised knuckles and weather hands were bonded with the same energy cuffs that were locking her palms together.

The final scanner buzzed out in a robotic voice “Name please”.

“Get bent” called out the tall bandana punk into the nearby microphone. Yen assumed the machine was attempting to cross check the criminals name with whatever they had on file, it was clear that they weren’t getting much from this guy. A guard walloped the punk in the chest leaving him wheezing for air. Yen noticed the punk clench a fist for a moment, ready to strike the guard square in the face. She could have sworn that for a moment his fist was turning a deep red but before the colour could materialise further, the punk released his grip and moved on. The robotic scanner blurted out “Long live the Avatar”.

Over the next hour, Yen was subjected to strip searches and the aggressively groping hands of the guard staff. Eventually her cuffs were powered down and removed as she was shoved into a large open, outdoor area. It was a work yard lit up with scattered flood lights, the night sky had little impact on the never-ending labour performed here.

The area was littered with rubble and half-destroyed buildings from some old, forgotten era. Scattered around the yard were various patrolling guards and convicts smashing rubble with pickaxes to be then: wheelbarrowed away. Yen was certain that clearing old debris and destroyed buildings could be done much quicker and more efficiently using machines but here it was all to be done by hand under penalty of a severe beating.

On the ride in, Yen had recognised that Tong Prison was situated on the very outskirts of Sanctum 1. The city was surrounded by an enormous defensive wall, advertised as the ‘Great Protector’. It represented the extent of the Avatars warm embrace around her citizens, keeping them safe from the danger and savagery of the Outer Baron. Citizens were rarely allowed to leave the city walls and so Yen chuckled at the thought of them being just as imprisoned as she was. Still, with the emptiness and lawlessness found throughout the Outer Baron, it was difficult to completely invalidate the various propaganda messages insisting that there is indeed safety within the walls.

Yen had committed the old photograph with her target’s face to memory and his name was the only word racing through her mind. She scanned the area before her eyes lit up as she spied the old man, smoking a cigarette with some of his cohorts.

For a moment she considered the bizarrely oxymoronic nature of security in this work yard. Some prisoners were working whilst others were standing around idly, but the guards didn’t seem to mind. It was clear that the guards were far less focused on what the inmates were doing, so long as they werent causing trouble.

She knew she didn’t have much time. Any moment now, the guards will have concluded the various blood tests that they took whilst she was being processed. Once they get the results, she knew they would come after her. Her pace quickened across the yard as she focused on her target. He was an older man with a large build, probably in his late 50s, clearly quite a bit older than his companions. They all seemed to be heavily tattooed and shared a clear disgust for the guards and Regime officers, often spitting in their direction. Yen observed the way they conversed amongst each other and found it odd. They were talking naturally and casually but almost _too_ casually. They seemed to be working to great effort to appear harmless and inconsequential, to mask the true nature of their conversations. This was exactly what she had expected to find. These _must_ be members of the Blood Lotus.

The thought excited her, and she began to quicken her pace. By now she was about half way across the yard and moments away from meeting her objective. Suddenly her shoulder barged into a passing inmate, stumbling her balance and stopping her in her tracks. The inmate stumbled upon the collision and scorned her.

“Watch where you’re going _princess_ ”.

Yen looked up and recognised the inmate as the tall punk she was stood behind in the processing line. This was the first time she had gotten a clear look at his face, it was weathered with minor scars: clear sign of a rough and unforgiving life on the streets. At this distance she could also see that his red bandana was torn from a large piece of fabric and fashioned into its current state.

“You watch who you are calling Princess”, she snapped back. The inmate smirked and grabbed her wrist with a menacing grip.

“This ain’t the kind of place for a little girl like you y’know”.

Yen hated being referred to like this, to her this was the most insulting thing anyone could call her. She remembered his glowing fist, “I’d say that this definitely isn’t the kind of place for a… _hot head_ like you”.

The inmate recoiled in surprise and released his grip. He glanced at the guards before looking back at her. She pushed passed him and continued on her way, smiling.

Yen approached the trio of smoking criminals. “Kuba” she muttered in the direction of the older man. The three looked at each other, shocked at her comment. The older man quickly returned to his stoic demeanour.

“Never heard of him, buzz off”. The three chuckled and continued smoking.

“You are Kuba aren’t you? I am Yen. Farah sent me, she said you could bring me to Rufus”. This instantly quelled their casual demeanour, as if hearing a forbidden phrase. They quickly eyed the guards and stood up to surround the young woman.

“Now you listen here lady…” Kuba grunted, “…we don’t know a damn thing about no Blood Lotus or their scumbag leader Rufus so get out of here before we get really mad”.

Yen stood her ground, “ _The pond is changed, and the flowers have wilted_ …”. Kuba and the gang stepped back in surprise. Kuba released a quiver of a smile and replied.

“… _but the lotuses flourish thereafter_ ”.

All four relaxed as the Blood Lotus members ushered Yen in closer to whisper. “Ok…” Kuba muttered, “…We haven’t heard from Farah in a long time, thought she was dead. What do you have for us?”.

Yen felt a rush of euphoria, she had entered the inner circle. She had stood her ground and had survived.

“Ok ermmm…” Yen struggled for a moment to recall the message she had been carrying all this time, “…the errrmmm monsters are snarling under the loud bells…”

Kuba and his cohorts were listening intently. Yen hesitated, desperately trying to remember the full message. “And what?” Kuba asked, “…Where does the moon shine?”

“Oh! The moon shines in the east!”, Yen’s memory was successfully jogged. This was seemingly enough information as the 3 began hurriedly mumbling to each other.

Yen wasn’t sure what she had delivered, “What does that mean?” she asked, “Can you get me to Rufus?”.

Kuba shushed Yen before her sentence could go any further. “Keep it down will you, if what you are saying is true then we don’t have a lot of time to prepare. Karl, go get the others and get them ready”. The inmate to Kuba’s left nodded and darted off toward a different group of workers.

Yen was ushered away as the previously lethargic prison grunts burst into life, buzzing from spot to spot whispering in each other’s ears. A sense of impending dread began to overtake the excitement building inside of Yin, whatever was approaching felt incredibly dangerous.

After a few hours, the inmates were led inside to the cell blocks. On their way in, they passed an equal sized group of inmates being led outside. These work/sleep rotations must have been how the Regime kept Tong operational 24/7.

The cell she was placed in was dingy and worn. It was difficult in some places to distinguish the ruins from the actual Prison, both shared a collection of smashed concrete and mossy cracks. Yen’s attention had been taken by a congregation of guards she could hear conversing nearby. The conversation was quiet and mostly muffled but she managed to distinguish that they were talking about some of the prisoners being missing from their cells. The guards seemed worried about reporting them missing as it would mean severe reparations from their commanding officers.

A deafening siren began to sound from outside.

Yen leapt from her seat and peered out of the window. She could see figures rushing around the work yard in the darkness. Guards could be seen shouting and running as spot lights began to fire up, illuminating small patches of the ground. The siren continued to blaze but the figures outside reacted less like a riot and more like a confused rabble in the darkness. Yen wasn’t sure what was happening, it was as if the guards were more interested in events happening _beyond_ the prison walls.

Boom.

The yard lit up as the entire eastern wall exploded in a fiery ball of dust and smoke. Guards could be seen flying away from the explosion and crumbling lifelessly on the ground. Yen gasped as more guards emerged from the smoke, engulfed in flames. Gunshots began to erupt all over the yard. The darkness was broken by tiny flashes of gun fire from Regime machine guns. She could see a large group of men charging into the prison yard, they didn’t appear to be armed.

Suddenly one of the figures thrusted his arm in the direction of a nearby guard. A long beam of concentrated water shot out in the direction of the man’s fist and launched the guard across the yard. _They were all cursed ones!_

Yen had never dreamed that so many cursed ones could exist in the world, let alone in one place. She spotted 2 that were commanding the dirt and rocks around them to fire at the guards and soldiers with quick, firm arm gestures. Another was curling fantastic fire balls into other nearby assailants, exploding on impact.

The Regime troops began to fire wildly at the attackers, instantly killing 2 or 3 as they charged. The siren fell silent as the lights in Yen’s cell flickered off. _They cut the power._

Yen darted out of her unlocked prison door and proceeded down the corridor. Along the way she spotted other prisoners rushing in different directions, some tumbling and scrambling with unarmed prison guards.

She blocked it out of her mind and remained running in a singular direction, desperate to find a way out.

“Hold it!” yelled a machine gun wielding guard at the end of the corridor. Yen spun around to face him, she could already see his trigger finger moving into position.

His weapon fired and the bullets speeded down the corridor in Yen’s direction. She closed her eyes and covered her face and yet the bullets never reached her. A large portion of the floor in front of her had suddenly risen up and formed a small wall, blocking the shots. Next to her, she noticed one of Kuba’s companions stood with his arms up in the air. He looked down at her “Move! Go, now!”.

She nodded and ran in the direction he was pointing. As she ran, she heard gunfire behind her and a male scream, she couldn’t be sure who the scream belonged to.

She found Kuba lying on the ground up against a wall in a small alcove, clutching his chest. Yen approached and gasped, noticing a deep red liquid seeping out from his wound. He had already bled out profusely across the floor. He coughed violently as Yen leaned in to tend to him.

“I’m done for kid…” he spluttered, spitting blood onto the floor, “…the boys are tough, but they are getting massacred out there”.

Yen wasn’t sure what to say, getting here and finding Kuba was her entire goal and yet here he lay, dying in a pool of his own blood.

“Just hold still…please…” Yen begged.

Kuba brushed her away, “Forget it kid, its over for me. Listen…”

Yen leaned in closer, “…Sirens Peak…it’s in the Outer Baron. That’s the rendezvous…they can get you to Rufus…”. Yen wasn’t sure whether he had more to say but as his eyes glazed over and his arm slumped to the floor: she could tell that that was all he was ever going to say. His body slowly tumbled over to one side and Yen’s eyes widened at what it revealed. Kuba had been sitting on a manhole cover, it appeared as if he had already opened it.

“Freeze Blood Lotus scum!”. Yen turned around to see 3 armed guards aiming square at her. She estimated that they had overpowered the Blood Lotus fighter that had previously protected her.

“Step away from the body! Do it Now!”.

Yen knew she only had one option. She screamed and thrust out her open palm. The entire corridor was instantly inked in a blinding white light. The guards recoiled and squirmed as their vision was entirely bleached out by the cosmically bright phenomena. Their momentary disorientation was Yen’s opportunity to begin shifting Kuba’s corpse away from the manhole. She just needed enough room to squeeze into the gap. Unfortunately, he proved heavier than she was prepared for and by the time she had rolled him to one side, the guards had regained composure and prepped their weapons to fire.

A thin streak of flame flashed down the corridor and ignited into the face of one of the guards, sending him tumbling to the ground. The impact was fast and harsh as if a meteor had struck him from space. The guards called out and attempted to fire at the unknown assailant before two more fire storms caught them in the chest and legs. With a flash Yen had gone from facing death, to facing a smouldering corridor of dead Regime soldiers. As she scurried into her sub-terrarium passage to freedom, she noticed the tall man with the red bandana standing in a fighting pose, his hands still glowing red from the fireballs. He had saved her.

With gunshots in the distance and more guards on the way, Yen leapt down the manhole and disappeared into the darkness within.

-

Distant shouts and gunfire pops grew muffled and soft as Yen scurried through the dark, wet corridors. There were intermittent buzzing lights overhead which scarcely revealed her surroundings to be an old utility tunnel. From the grotesque and overpowering stench, Yen determined that this may have been a sewer once before the city sector above fell to ruin. Navigation was impossible, one long dripping pipe lead to another, twisting and curving forever.

Yen collapsed to her knees, heavily panting and trying to catch her breath. The rush had allowed her to completely ignore the throbbing pain in her muscles from running so far and so fast. By now she could no longer hear any sounds save for the distant drips and creaks of the pipe work.

Yin’s ears pricked up as the sound of water breaking echoed nearby. Was it a splash? A rodent maybe? Or had someone tracked her all this way?

She was a statue. Her lungs inflated and held air, refusing to exhale. Another splash, then _another._ These were not separate sounds, they were footsteps. Yen tried to establish a distance, but the echo made it impossible to determine whether they were a meter or a mile away. She decided to run.

Water splashed loudly beneath her feet as she bolted down another corridor. Had she been this way already? Was she going in circles? If she could just lose her attacker, she could rest and regain her bearings.

The pain in her muscles began to reach out and pull her to a standstill. Her legs were numb and began to buckle beneath her. She hardly noticed hitting the ground, if it had not been for the cold water drenching her face then she may have easily passed out. The footsteps stopped, inches from her head. There was no escape.

“If you are trying to get out of the city, you are going the wrong way”, a voice echoed from above her. Looking up, she recognised the growling, weathered face of the punk from the prison.

He grabbed her forcibly and lifted her to her feet. Yen shook herself back to consciousness.

“…You…what are you doing here?” she asked with a drunken-sounding slur.

He smirked “Same as you I expect, exits that way”. The man pointed in the opposite direction to where Yen had been running.

Yen tried to respond but began to see spots in front of her. Her eyes glazed over and her vision blurred and darkened. Black.

When she awoke, she was alone. She was in a seated position on the cold, wet ground in the same dark tunnel she collapsed in. Scrambling to her feet, she slowly manged to walk in the direction of the exit.

The journey may have been miles, she couldn’t tell however her spirits immediately jumped as the tunnel slowly grew lighter. Turning a final corner, Yen was blinded by the morning sun. She had reached the narrowed end to the tunnel, which culminated in a rusted grating. Normally this would completely block her exit, but a large gap had been recently melted in place. “The fire thrower, that cursed man…” she thought as she climbed through the make-shift gap.

In front of her was the Outer Baron. The morning sun enveloped the landscape in an eerie pink glow, dancing with the endless orange of the sand. Most of the landscape was fields of yellowing dead grass broken by intermittent and sporadic sand dunes. Regime broadcasts had warned of the harsh, unforgiving lands beyond the Avatar’s embrace but only know did Yen truly appreciate the gravity of those messages. Her journey to Sanctum 1 was mostly spent hidden inside the cargo hold of a Regime supply train, she had never dreamed that she would be so exposed and vulnerable as she felt at that moment, staring at the endless deadlands and nothingness.

Yen could see scattered vehicles and small structures, half submerged in the earth. These relics of a forgotten age were frozen in time as tomb stones and ancient memories. The war against the demons had ravaged most of the world. The Outer Baron stood as a monumental reminder of the horror the world would face if not for the protection of the Avatar and her Regime.

Turning around, Yen could see mostly rubble behind them leading to the foot of a giant grey wall which marked the entrance to Sanctum 1. She was _out._

Yen took a breath and prepared herself for the first step into a new world.

“I wouldn’t recommend going out there princess”, a familiar voice called. Yen turned to see the bandana punk smoking near the tunnel entrance.

“And why the hell not?” she snapped.

“Because out there, there’s way worse things than soldiers, if I were you, I would turn around and find your way back”, he took another puff of his cigarette and starred off at the sunrise.

Yen thought for a moment before replying, “If it is so dangerous out there, why don’t you tag along? I could use a guide”.

The man laughed out loud and replied without looking at her, “Sorry, not interested”.

“Well, where are you going to go?”

“No where with you princess. I don’t need that kind of trouble”.

Yen frowned, “What kind of trouble are you talking about?”.

The man finally looked at Yin, “Oh come on, I saw you back at Tong. You and your Blood Lotus psycho friends. I’m no fan of the Regime but I got better things to do than sing camp songs and spray pretty pictures on the walls”.

Yen prepared to shout back but steadied herself for a moment before calmly replying as best she could.

“I need to get to Sirens Peak, is it far?”

The man spoke with the cigarette still between his lips,

“Well it ain’t close. Lots of bad shit between here and there”.

Yen walked over to him and stood in front of him, forcing his gaze.

“They scanned you, same as me y’know”.

The man looked unimpressed, “So what? Leave me alone”. He brushed her off and began walking away.

Yen called after him, “They saw you helping me in the prison. You take 1 step in any town or city and the scanners will grab you in an instant”.

The man stopped and turned back to her, “What the hell are you talking about?”.

Yen smiled, “I’m a psycho Blood Lotus remember? And you aided a known terrorist in escaping a Regime prison. They’ll never stop hunting you now”.

The man looked down for a moment, he hadn’t contemplated this. He knew all too well that he would be scanned a hundred times over if he were to go near any half-civilised place. They would chase him forever.

Yen continued with newly formed confidence, “Although if you help me get to Sirens Peak…”

“Then what?” he grumbled.

“…Then they can get you a scramble chip. Scanners will never be able to pin you. You get me there and you get to disappear”. Yen folded her arms in front of her and awaited his response.

The man was clearly angry with what he had gotten himself mixed up with. He had no interest in the Regime or the Blood Lotus or any of that crap. His thoughts raced around a possible alternative, but he knew that the scanners would always find him. A familiar deep voice began to whisper into his mind. The words were unclear, but it seemed to be _willing_ him to go with the girl. There was no other choice.

“I get you to the Peak, your Lotus boys get me my chip…”

“That’s the deal!” Yen chirped.

“…after that, we are done. I’m out of here”.

Yen walked up and held out her hand to shake on the deal, “I’m Yin, and you are?”.

The man recoiled his hand and removed the cigarette from his mouth before tossing it to the ground.

“…The name is Zhana. Now lets just get this over with”.

He sighed and began walking on a barely visible dusty track leading away from the city. The rusted and fossilised machines and vehicles along the way suggested that this was once a busy road system but had since festered in the sun. This was their road. 

-

The afternoon sun hung lazily in the sky, casting an orange hew across the mostly still landscape. Yen’s legs ached but Zhana showed no signs of slowing down. She began to worry that she had been naïve in forcing him to travel with her, after all: she wasn’t even sure he knew how to get Siren’s Peak. She couldn’t ask him as it would violate the ‘no talking’ rule that he had so clearly instigated and reinforced every time she tried to start a conversation, if only to take her mind off of the endless, dusty nothingness that lay ahead of them. She instead chose to assess his competency by carefully studying his body language. Doing this, she found that his orientation and path finding was far too determined and objective in order to be faked. He _must_ know where he is going.

They had been walking all day and had not seen another living thing. Most people lived within the Sanctum cities while the remaining, scattered villages slowly disintegrate through poverty and circumstance. Since birth, everyone had grown up on the frequent Regime broadcasts warning of the dangers of the Outer Baron. Bandits, cursed ones and even the demons themselves still roamed these wilds and so it was forbidden to travel without specific permission. It was this thought that comforted Zhana as he knew that any fugitives that made it to the Outer Baron would simply be assumed dead (and most were by nightfall). This meant that any Regime search parties would be extremely unlikely. He still wasn’t prepared to risk following the main roads and so had diverted their path toward an old, withering forest on the horizon.

“So…” began Yin, tired of the ‘no-talking’ rule, “…you’re a fire flinger, right? Your curse I mean”.

Zhana ignored her and increased his pace so that soon she would be talking only to his back.

She persisted, “I had never met another one until the prison”.

“We are not talking remember?” Zhana huffed.

“Yeah but we’ve been walking for hours. Its either we at least get to know each other a little or we just continue to stare at the sand and dead grass and busted old junk”.

“Sounds good, do that then”.

Yen crossed her arms and stormed up beside him. “Do you even know where we are going? I swear you are just walking aimlessly”.

Zhana finally turned to loom at her, realising that he could only ignore her for so long. She was far more relentless than he was used to.

“Yes. We are taking a short cut through the woods. That is where we are going to make camp. Siren’s Peak is going to be a couple of days on foot so we have to lay as low as we can”.

Yen seemed a little impressed, it was the first semblance of an actual plan that she had heard all day. Looking back, there was no sign of Sanctum 1 anymore. It had long since disappeared beneath the horizon, in its place was the same endless sandy deadlands that lay ahead of them.

Reaching the forest, they found that it was mostly filled with brittle, leafless branches straggling amongst each other in an endless tangled web. It took some manoeuvring to duck and weave through the bramble but as the light began to dim, Zhana pushed aside a final branch to reveal a small, comfortable clearing.

The dry wood would make excellent kindling for a fire. Zhana gathered what he could and dumped them in a heap. He signalled toward the fire.

“Go ahead, work your magic”, he smiled.

Yen looked back at him and crossed her arms. She seemed surprisingly insulted.

“What? You want me to start the fire?”.

Zhana nodded, “You implied that you are also a fire flinger, is that correct?”.

Yen knew she would be tested in the wilds; she couldn’t let anyone get the better of her.

“Well, yes I am cursed with fire but…”

“Then there is no issue. Start the fire”. Zhana leaned against a nearby tree smugly, he had made up his mind that she was not cursed at all and was instead a scared little girl trying to play tough.

She stood for a moment, staring at the wooden heap. Her hands were shaking as she closed her eyes and raised them up in the direction of the tinder. Zhana could see she was concentrating, but what was so difficult? She would only need to make a tiny spark.

“Ok, I’m bored”. Zhana said as he swung a fist at the ground. The darkness of the dead wood flashed into daylight for a moment as a brilliant orange flame erupted from his fists before plummeting into the stack of branches. _Wooof!_

The campfire was lit and crackling as Yen opened her eyes and released a sigh of relief. She sat down and felt the fire’s soothing heat flow over her chest and face. They had been walking so long that she hadn’t really noticed how tired she really was.

“OK so a fire curse, but not a very good one it seems” chuckled Zhana, tending to the flame with a small stick her had collected.

Yen shot him an angry glare before calming herself. She figured she would have to at least tolerate this man until they reached their destination, as best as she could. Ignoring his comment, she curled her legs into her arms and stared into the fire.

Zhana seemed a little apologetic and quickly changed the subject.

“So, what the hell is a girl like you doing out here anyway? Better yet, what were you doing in jail? Let me guess, you ran away from home cause your fancy parents wouldn’t let you go shopping?”.

“Oh, shut up, will you? Can’t you at least try to talk to me like an actual person for once?”

Zhana laughed to himself and tried again, feeling that he had probably taken a step too far.

“Ok whatever. But what is your deal anyway? And how did you get mixed up with those Blood Lotus lunatics?”.

“My mother knew them”, she replied calmly into the flames. “…She was pretty well connected”.

Zhana looked confused, “Your Mom knows the Blood Lotus? So why don’t you just call her to get some of her goons to come pick us up?”.

Yen didn’t respond, she just stared into the fire. Zhana quickly understood why. “Oh…” he said, realising the wound he had just opened, “…what happened?”.

Yen swallowed and allowed herself to speak, clearly fighting to keep her composure.

“Up until two weeks ago, I lived a nice life out in the country with my mom, miles from anyone. It was awesome. We would grow our own food, go swimming in the lake and dance to her old music tracks. Then everything changed when the Regime arrived at our door. Mom knew it would happen eventually; she had been connected to the Blood Lotus since her youth but left it behind to raise me. She gave me a code to give to a man named Kubo in Sanctum 1. He would be able to help me but…”

“- He was in prison?” interrupted Zhana.

Yen Nodded, “Right. She got me on the back of a passing truck before the soldiers spotted me. Then they shot her. They shot her so many times”.

They sat in the darkness for a few moments, gazing into their only source of light.

“Regime killed my folks when I was a kid. They are assholes but who cares. It is what it is”.

Yen looked shocked; she had seen anger in his eyes but never this directed. Who was this man? She wasn’t sure she knew.

Zhana rolled onto his side, facing away from Yen. “I’m going to sleep. You should too, it’s a long walk to the river tomorrow”.

She nodded in his direction, but he hadn’t noticed. Tonight, was the first time Yen had said out loud what had happened to her. She had been so focused on her mission that none of it seemed real, everything had been a blur, until now. Now she just was sat alone in the dark with the image of her blood ridden mother’s body crumpled on the floor. She held her head in her arms and quietly wept.

-

Their attackers were all but silent. Zhana’s eyes creeped open upon the faint sound of a twig snapping nearby. He clenched a fist, but it was too late. The cold sting in his neck was all too familiar, he had been on both sides of it before. All he could do was count down the seconds as his vision blurred and his muscles grew numb. Dark shapes began to emerge in front of him as the tranquilizer worked its magic, edging closer to inspect their prey. They were laughing.

Zhana sprung to his feet, kicking dust around him and he scrambled. His head smacked into the wooden bars of the makeshift cage almost immediately. Recoiling in pain, Zhana was finally able to orient himself as his surroundings slowly came into focus.

The darkness a thick, engrossing presence encircling the small camp area. He seemed to be situated elsewhere in the forest in an area where the dead foliage grew even thicker and more oppressive. It would be a perfect hiding spot, even in broad daylight. Nearby he could see a large collection of crates and boxes overflowing with guns and ammunition of all different sizes and calibre. There were lanterns dangling from tree branches scattered about the immediate area, illuminating only the small patches beneath them. Zhana could not see anything of the areas between each lantern. He could hear whispering voices nearby, but it was impossible to determine how many of them there were.

Just outside of his cage was a small, flickering campfire illuminating a second cage similar in design to his. Yen was curled up inside the second cage, still unconscious from the dart. He could see that she was stirring, probably about the wake up too. Zhana began to whisper in her direction.

“Yen _…hey kid wake up…”_

Yen began to roll over and yawn. She opened her eyes and panicked. Zhana would have to act fast to keep her calm and quiet.

Lizarro banged the top of his telecommunicator unit as the signal flickered in and out. Out here in the woods there would be no signal eligibility for a video call, so he was having to make do with grainy, intermittent audio.

“Yeah both of them, just like you said, right now they are taking a little nap”.

The attached speakers buzzed a response from the recipient “The bounty was for them alive. If they are dead, then a significant deduction will be applied”.

“Keep ya panties on will ya, they are _fine._ Now come get em’ will ya, you know where I am”. Lizarro forcibly punched the large read button on the console, instantly terminating the call.

He chuckled to himself and wandered away from the machine in the direction of the cages. By the time he arrived, Yen and Zhana were both mostly recuperated from the darts.

“Well look who decided to final wake up. Sun’s gonna be up soon and I wouldn’t want you two to miss the beautiful sunrise. You remember those don’t ya Z?”.

Yen was shocked, did these people know each other?

“Been a long time Lizarro, how’s the leg?” Zhana smirked.

“Are you barely scratched it, that shitty aim of yours”. Lizarro spoke a jovial nature that barely masked his rage.

Yen asked “Wait, Zhana do you know this man?”.

Lizarro responded before Zhana had a chance, “That’s right little miss. Z here used to run with us back in the day, before we found out about him”.

Zhana and Yen noticed more figures emerging behind Lizarro from the darkness. At least 4 or 5 with more whispering beyond. As Lizarro spoke, he moved forward into the light revealing his dusty brown trench coat filled with patches and holes covering multiple weapons strapped to his legs and chest. Yen could see at least two pistols and multiple knives about his person. He was completely bald with a thick black beard that completely covered his mouth. The beard was roughly matted and latching on to several clumps of dust and grime.

“Found out…what?” Yen asked, unsure as to whether she was prepared to find out anything more about the man she had entrusted her life to.

One of the gang members stepped forward and spat at Zhana’s caged yelling, “That he’s a freak!”

Lizarro stepped forward, making sure his men were all behind him. “That’s right, we took you in. Looked after you. Gave you a home and you lied to us”.

“I didn’t lie about anything…” Zhana interrupted.

“You lied to me!” Lizarro screamed, grabbing the cage with his dirty fists. “You were an unholy piece of shit the whole time and you said nothing”.

Yen stepped back, beginning to understand.

“So, I’m cursed. Who cares?” Zhana asked, throwing up his arms in frustration.

“Who cares? Who cares that you are a demon freak who wants to end the whole damn lot of us?!”.

The crowd began to grow restless. “I say we kill him!” yelled one, “Shoot the freak!”, called another.

Lizarro held out his arms to quiet the men.

“We ain’t gonna kill him, even if he is a monster. Luckily there is a hell of a bounty out for him and his little lady friend here. Avatar pays the big bucks!”. The crowd cheered loudly as Zhana focused his rage into his burning fist.

Lizarro whistled, signalling another bandit to throw a bucket of water into Zhana’s cage. Zhana squealed as the freezing cold liquid crashed against his skin, instantly quelling the fires within him.

“Your demon powers ain’t gonna help you here Z. You’re going to rot in a Regime whole with the rest of your disgusting kind”.

Zhana rubbed his eyes to clear the water from his dropping face. “You know I didn’t choose this right? I was born like this, all the cursed were!”.

“That’s Hippo-Cow shit and you know it. You chose this life and you chose wrong pal”.

This is something Zhana had faced his whole life. He had learned to keep his true nature a secret from every normal human he met. Yen was shocked, she had grown up so isolated from any of this that it was alien to her. Were they truly all evil? Should she hide what she is and wish to be normal? Her mother had always taught her to be proud of her gift and that one day she would need it.

Lizarro smiled at the soaking Zhana, trapped in his animal cage. “It will all be over soon Z. Best get some shut eye”.

Yen called over to Zhana with a newly found rush of energy “Yes Zhana, you should definitely Shut. Your. Eyes!”.

Instinct was something Zhana had learned to listen to. The voice in his head had whispered him out of deadly situations his whole life and right now it was willing him to squeeze his eyes closed.

Lizarro span to face the girl as she raised her hand up in front of her. He yelled “The girl! She’s cursed!”.

In an instant the forest lit up as an explosion of white light erupted from Yen’s hands. For a moment, enormous shadows of dead, ancient trees reached out across the darkness in a dazzling circle around the camp. The entire gang recoiled as their painful blindness afflicted them all at once. Some tumbled to the ground in agony, but Yen knew this would not last long. She called out to Zhana who was already taking his window of opportunity.

The gang began to recover and reach for their weapons as Zhana swung his fist. His chance only allowed him a single fire fling and so his aim would have to be precise. The fireball roared out from his body and flew out of the cage in Lizarro’s direction, just narrowly missing him. Yen was momentarily disheartened as she watched her kidnapper only receive a minor singe on his shoulder as Zhana’s flame missed him. But Zhana’s aim was indeed true as Lizarro was never his target.

The fireball smashed into the ammunition cache with a loud roar, instantly exploding several grenades and ammo packs.

Several bandits flew through the air, screaming as the fiery blast erupted from the corner of the camp. Many others began to scream as the ammo magazines began to pop and burst, firing stray bullets in all directions. 

Zhana quickly punched at his cage, burning the locks just enough to allow him to kick his way to freedom. Lizarro dived for cover and several nearby trees lit up, entirely ablaze and exploding across the camp. Yen ducked and covered her eyes as Zhana bashed open her cell. He grabbed her hand and yanked her away from the explosions, into the nearby darkness.

Zhana ran with Yen into the darkness, clutching her hand behind him. He hadn’t been in one of the Lizarro’s camps for many years, but he was trusting his memory. The voice inside reminded him of exactly where he would need to go. “Head to the back, under the tarp, where they always are”.

Eventually Zhana grinded to a halt in front of 3 large tarps. In the darkness, Yen interpreted them as large mounds of dirt but Zhana knew their true purpose all too well.

Screams echoed nearby as the gunshots and explosions continued. “We gotta go, now!” blurted Zhana as he threw away a tarp to reveal a large black-steel Hover Bike.

The engine buzzed a fearsome electronic roar. Yen grappled her arms around Zhana’s torso as he straddled the handlebars. The red lights on the front and side were the eyes of a wild predator stalking the forest depths in dark. Zhana let out two more fiery blasts at the remaining bikes before blasting the turbo engines into full power and zooming off down the dusty forest path. Yen watched the flames and booms slowly shrink behind them until eventually there were no more screams and the light was little more than a distance candle burning in the distance.

-

The hoverbike was noticeably shabby. As they sped through the dead forest and back out onto the open plains, Yen was able to get a closer look at the vehicle. There was tape holding almost every piece of machinery together. One part of the vehicle seemed to have been entirely replaced with a glass beer bottle. It wasn’t long until it began to chug and slow down. Zhana seemed confident that it would get them to where they needed to go.

His confidence was rewarded when they slowed to a halt at a small fishing village on the edge of a river. Yen could see five small make-shift huts pieced together with scrap metal and rags; some were illuminated from within. The village was quiet and Zhana spared no time in hopping off the bike and approaching the only other human in sight. It was an old fisherman tending to some small rowing boats which were bobbing lazily on the river. Yen couldn’t hear their conversation but after a few minutes they shook hands and Zhana returned to her.

“OK kid, off the bike and into the boat”.

“But what about the bike?” she asked, clambering to the floor.

“It’s his now. The river will take us all the way to the peak from here”.

The fisherman seemed very excited by his new bike and eagerly assisted the two of them into their newly purchased wooden vessel. It still contained some discarded fishing equipment and was rotting in several noticeable places. This worried Yen at first, but she was quickly put at ease upon seeing Zhana’s carefree attitude exude from him as he lifted an oar in each hand and began to slowly row them both down a long, calm river.

Lizarro heaved another smouldering crate onto the burning pile. Most of their equipment had been blown to pieces or burned to ash and so he had ordered his remaining men to audit their remaining usable stock. His men were bandaged and bruised from the previous nights explosions and so morale was noticeably low.

The bandit’s attention was soon stolen by the rumbling arrival of a large black Regime security truck. The golden R insignias glistened in the morning sun as Lizarro tossed away the crate he was currently holding and hobbled toward the truck. He winced as he walked, feeling the sting from a ricochet wound that had torn a hole in his left leg. The truck screeched to a stop and the side doors swung open, allowing 3 soldiers to hop out and stand to attention. The inside of the truck was completely obscured by a lavish velvet curtain that donned the interior of the door. Lizarro confidently addressed the solders.

“Ah, well here comes the cavalry. Late as always.”

The soldiers stood silently, Lizarro seemed confused and wondered if they had not heard him. Suddenly a deep voice boomed from behind the curtain.

“Where is the girl…”

Lizarro was taken back by the unseen voice. He quickly gathered himself and replied with his regular bravado.

“She was here, that asshole Z too. But you bozos took too damn long and now you missed them”.

A moment of silence passed as Lizarro awaited a response.

“You let them go?”

“Hell no, I didn’t let them go. They busted up my whole operation and took off”, called Lizarro growing frustrated. By this point, several of Lizarros remaining men gathered behind him, brandishing their machine guns. The Regime soldiers seemed completely undeterred by this and continued to stand as statues to attention.

“You are pathetic, and they escaped. How disappointing”, rumbled the deep voice.

Lizarro unholstered his pistol and begin to shout, “Hey don’t think we won’t put all of you Regime punks in the ground if we don’t get our reward. It’s not our fault you were late”.

Lizarros men raised their weapons and aimed at the truck ready to open fire. A sudden glint of light emerged from the inside of the truck as several shimmers shot passed Lizarro in an instant.

He stood confused for a moment; he could no longer hear his men behind him. Turning his head, he saw that his surrounding entourage had all been silenced in an instant. He gasped as he noticed the thin, razer sharp ice needles sticking out each of their faces, freezing them in an expression of terror upon the moment of death. All as one, they tumbled to the ground.

Lizarro span around to face the truck and raised his pistol. A plume of water fired out from the curtain, punching him directly in the gut and throwing him violently to the ground. The pain was excruciating as he landed directly on his wound. He moaned in agony as he looked up to see the curtains part.

A tall, pail man stepped out of the truck wearing a long, lavish white robe. His long black hair had been tied back in a ponytail which pulled tightly on his scalp.

“You…you’re…a Warden!” Lizarro fumbled around for his lost weapon but with a swift and graceful flurry, the Warden commanded a sphere of clear, blue water to land on Lizarros head. The sphere did not break on impact, instead the Warden carefully maintained it as Lizarro screamed within, gasping for air.

“I am Hon. Warden of the Great Avatar and you are nothing but a plague on her beautiful world”.

Lizarro managed to scramble to his feet and thrashed at the sphere encasing his head but whatever water he pushed away would immediately return to its original position. He began running frantically but the sphere followed him with every step. His muffled screams let out a volley of bubbles as he stood alone amongst his impaled comrades, drowning on his feet.

His eyes glazed as the water finally dropped to the floor. His corpse tumbled into the puddle soon after.

The soldiers quickly swept through the camp looking for signs of their target. One soldier was tinkering with a gadget in his hand over by where the Hoverbikes had been stored.

“Sir! I’ve picked up a residual energy signature from a Hoverbike. It leads off in that direction”. He pointed out onto the path which lead out of the forest.

Hon nodded and returned to his sanctuary within the truck, muttering to himself “where are you going little demon?”.

-

The boat gently rocked in rhythm with Zhana’s rowing. It had gradually become easier to manoeuvre the vessel the further downstream they travelled. A current was beginning to guide the boat leaving Zhana free to focus on steering. The afternoon was warm, and the sun had already begun its slow descent into the evening as the two weary travellers found themselves lost in conversation.

“So, what was that flash thing anyway? Never seen any curse like that”, asked Zhana as he heaved another stroke of the oar.

“Well, I actually have the same curse as you…” Yen replied nervously.

“Fire?”

“Yes, I was never able to control flames very well though, let alone conjure them like you do”. Yen seemed disheartened upon admitting this but Zhana chuckled and held up his hand.

“I’m not quite as good as you think, I just wear the right jewellery”, Zhana smiled as he revealed his two peculiar looking rings. He clicked his fingers in a way he had practiced many times before and as the rings connected, a spark leapt out of his hand.

Yen laughed, “Ha! That’s a neat trick!”.

“Yeah it’s always handy to have fire at my fingertips. I definitely can’t make it so bright that it blinds people though”.

Yen looked down at her feet, nestled on the soggy wooden planks lining the base of the boat. “Mom called it my Light. When I struggled to make a flame, I found that I could instead just make it really bright, really fast. Mom trained me to use it”.

“She encouraged your curse?” enquired Zhana, raising a cynical eyebrow.

Yen nodded, “Uh huh, she said it was a gift and that I should be proud of it”.

“Well a lot of people will tell you that it’s evil and that you should be ashamed of it”.

Yen looked determined, “They will just have to accept it, and if they don’t then I have a nice gift for their retinas waiting! That’s what the Blood Lotus are fighting for!”.

Zhana huffed at this, “The Blood Lotus? Why did you join up with those psychos anyway?”

“They are _not_ psychos. They are fighting to free us from the Avatar”.

“They blow shit up, the Regime blows stuff up back. They are all just different sides of the same coin, you know, that right?”.

Yen took a moment to calm herself before responding, “At least they believe in something, they aren’t just coasting through life refusing to accept the world around them”.

“Oh, I accept it pretty well. When I was a kid; the Regime killed my parents right in front of me, I know how fucked up the Avatar is…”

“-so why don’t you do something then?” interrupted Yen.

“Because that _is_ the world. Life is hard OK? The best you can hope for is to smash a few car windows and maybe ruin the Regime’s day a little. The Avatar lives forever and is going to be here long after you and me. All that _Death to the Avatar_ Hippo-Cow shit that the Lotus guys are always screaming is worthless. You seem like you can really handle yourself, you should follow my path. Live free. Don’t Join”.

“Yeah and die for nothing. Also, car windows?”.

Zhana smiled, “Hey, just because I don’t follow your Lotus buddies, doesn’t mean I can’t screw around with the Regime my way. My whole life has been hustling, stealing and running with all kinds of charming groups”.

“I can believe that…Z”.

They laughed out loud together. “Yeah Lizarro and me go way back. Ran with those guys a few times”.

“Oh…” Yen said, worried that she had struck a nerve, “…I’m sorry about what happened to him”.

Zhana smiled, “You kidding? That guy was an asshole!”.

They both continued to laugh as the boat drifted smoothly toward its destination.

The villagers of the small fishing settlement on the river gathered along the road to welcome the large black Regime truck as it thundered into view. The village didn’t get many official visits from any government types so this would be a rare treat, so much so that a few mothers were hastily tidying their children’s hair in preparation.

The truck screeched to a halt and the doors swept open. Six heavily armed Regime troopers disembarked in immaculate unison and stood to attention. The villagers were astounded by the pink glow from their cybernetic implants which buzzed and hummed as Warden Hon glided out onto the street. The soldiers asked very few questions but with terrifying authority. The villagers were asked as a group where the two fugitives were.

“We traded them a boat for their bike, they took off down river!” called a fisherman, pointing in the direction of the flowing stream. Hon nodded at his soldiers and climbed back into the truck.

“Thank you, kind citizen. The Avatar blesses you all”.

One mother was able to let out a small gasp before the soldiers opened fire on the crowd. Men, women and fleeing children screamed as they were torn apart with deadly accuracy. Within minutes a pile of bullet-ridden bodies lay at the entrance to the village. The soldiers began to set fire to the huts and corpses as per procedure. There was to be no memory of this place after that day.

-

The sun had almost completely set on the boat. Zhana knew they were getting close and smiled at Yen as she slept soundly on her side.

_Beware. Traverse the gate. Beware, they are coming._

Zhana had been hearing the voice in his head much more clearly in the last few hours.

_They are near. Beware._

He stood up and looked around. Time to move.

The boat approached its final destination, a cliff face tumbling over into a large waterfall to the river below. “Time to wake up kid, we got to move”.

Zhana manoeuvred the vessel to the riverbank a few metres from the waterfall edge and helped the slowly waking Yen out onto the shore.

“Where…where do we go now?” Yen asked, rubbing her eyes.

Zhana gestured toward the falls, “I need you to climb down the side of that waterfall”.

“What?!...” panicked Yin, “…Are you crazy?”.

“Relax, there’s a passage of rocks that lead to a cave behind the waterfall about halfway down. Go through and wait for me outside the other end ok?”.

“What do you mean? You aren’t coming?”.

Zhana was already gently pushing her in the direction of the waterfall as he hastily responded, “I’ll be right behind you, trust me”.

Yen stared at him for a moment. She nodded and began climbing down the rocks.

The Regime truck slowed its pace upon seeing the small rowboat moored at the side of the river just in front of the waterfall drop. It was almost entirely ablaze and had been burning for some time. They had noticed the smoke bellowing into the sky from miles prior, but only now could they see it’s source. A metallic screech erupted from the doors as they slid open, allowing the six troopers to disembark, all brandishing their weapons in every available direction.

The captain amongst them wandered over to the flaming boat to investigate. Their masks were state-of-the-art and would not only allow him to breathe amongst the fumes but also see clearly through them. “They’re not here, they must have taken off on foot…”, he stood up and began directing his squadron to fan out and search the immediate area.

Zhana knew he had to be careful. One sound, one misstep and they would hear him. The soldiers were still gathered around the peculiar burning boat when Zhana made his move. He weaved from rock to rock the precision of a snake in the grass, stopping each time to study their movement. Nearer and nearer, he continued to duck and roll using the distraction he had placed to his advantage. Soon he found himself mere metres from the nearest trooper. From here he could clearly see the various pink, glowing wires weaving in and out of the suit, a similar glowing energy was pulsing through the soldier’s assault rifle.

This was not the first time Zhana had been faced with Regime kill-squads and so he knew their tactics well as well as their equipment. The soldier stepped back slightly to readjust his footing, this would be Zhanas opportunity. He reached out his arm from behind the rock and stretched his muscles as far as they would go before carefully snagging his prize.

_Bingo._

Zhana smiled at the metallic sphere in his hand. It was a high-capacity Regime metallic Energy-Grenade, and he knew just the place for it.

“Sir, footsteps lead down the falls. They may be hiding along the river below” called a soldier to his captain. The captain nodded and ushered them all back into the truck. They stampeded back inside and slammed the side doors shut with a loud clank.

Zhana emerged from behind the rock, armed the explosive with a push of the detonation trigger and hurled it in the direction of the truck.

The engine had just spluttered into life as the grenade tumbled underneath the chassis. Zhana bolted for the cliff face.

“Hey! There he is! Open Fire!” yelled a soldier from inside the truck. Zhana turned for a moment as his sprint reached full speed and spied the soldiers sliding open the door and readying their weapons. A large pink burst of fire erupted from underneath the truck, shaking the ground all around it. Zhana stumbled as the explosion lifted the truck into the air in a plume of smoke and fire. The front portion of the truck crunched and splintered as it collided with the ground before collapsing onto its side and tumbling over the edge. Muffled screams and explosions followed its descent before it smashed into the rocks below and exploded. The shock wave rippled all the way to the top of the falls where Zhana was currently clambering down the rocks.

He grabbed on as hard as he could, but the blast had shaken the cliff face to its capacity and one-by-one, the rocks began to break off and tumble.

“Oh crap…” yelled Zhana as his path to the waterfall cave began to collapse beneath him. He quickly leapt from platform to platform, avoiding the falling debris and sidestepping the collapsing walkway. Finally, he was within reach of the cave. He had manoeuvred his way to the side of the waterfall and could now squeeze behind it into the concealed cavemouth. Zhana readied himself and took one final desperate jump as the platform broke apart beneath his feet. With a painful thump, Zhana rolled into the cave and fell to his knees.

He let out a long sigh of relief and could hardly believe that he had managed to pull off his half-baked plan. Dust and small rocks began to sprinkle down from the ceiling of the long dark cave. Zhana had traversed this tunnel in the past, either for smuggling or hiding from authorities and so he knew that the exit wasn’t far. This was a good thing because the cave continued to shake and rumble, it would completely collapse in no time.

Zhana dusted himself and carefully climbed to his feet. The tunnel entrance was illuminated by the dancing aquatic glow from the waterfall gushing by behind him. As he began to walk deeper into the cave, he became highly aware of the deafening echoes caused by the constant rushing water from the falls. He could barely hear himself think and so was propelled to leave as soon as possible. Taking a few steps into the cave, the thundering roar of the waterfall began to quiet behind him. This was unusual as he was still so close to the entrance.

The cave rumbled and shook violently as Zhana turned to face the waterfall, perplexed by the sudden calming of the waterflow. He gasped as the waterfall began to part in front of him, as if it were a pair of curtains revealing the window beneath.

“What the…” he muttered as a figure levitated into view. Warden Hon flew from beneath the falls on a geyser of highly pressurised water jets. His long hair was dishevelled, and his clothes were noticeably burned. Zhana recognised the robes immediately and cowered as the water was commanded to charge inside the cave. Zhana attempted to run but the water jets caught his leg and threw him violently to the ground.

“You cannot run vermin!” boomed the Warden as he glided into the cave and landed gracefully at the entrance. The water had convulsed into a raging storm behind him, screaming out to eviscerate anything in its wake and yet held itself for the command of its master. Zhana gathered his remaining strength and lit up a flame. He spun around and flung the fireball toward the Warden but the waterjets beneath his feet tumbled him once again, throwing the fireball off aim. Hon laughed to himself at how pathetic the attempt was and readied himself for an easy kill. The fireball bounced up to the ceiling and exploded the loose rocks that had been shaking since the truck blast. Within an instant, the entire cave began to shake and collapse. The rocks from the ceiling dropped and encased the entire tunnel. Zhana was draped in darkness as the entire waterfall entrance was snuffed out from large boulders. He clambered to his feet and dashed down into the cave, avoiding the collapse as it flattened everything around him.

-

“Oh my god, Z! Are you okay?” called out Yen as she rushed to meet the panting Zhana exiting the cave. The cave exited onto a rocky mountain side dotted with dead trees and yellow sand. Each withering landmark casted a long reaching shadow against the setting sun. Yen had waited for some time and began to worry when she heard the distant explosions and so was instantly relieved to see her companion emerge unharmed.

He rested his hands on his knees and breathed heavily. It had been a desperate sprint to survive the collapsing tunnel and the sunlight was causing Zhana to squint as his eyes readjusted to the outside.

Yen smiled and leaned in to comfort him, “What happened?”.

Zhana snarled and pushed her arm away from him. “Get the hell away from me!”.

She stepped back, shocked at his sudden outburst, “What…what’s wrong Z?”

He stood up and waved his arms aggressively at her, still noticeably out of breath, “First, you start talking. Now”.

Yen seemed confused, “What are you talking about?”.

He stepped closer to her with rage swelling in his eyes, “They had a _Warden_ Yin, a real Warden”.

“A Warden? Wow, I mean we _are_ cursed ones after all…”

Zhana snapped, “Cut the crap right now! For a couple of a runaway cursed: they send the cops, they don’t send a Warden. Who the hell are you anyway?”.

Yen stood silently for a moment, she looked down at her feet.

“The truth Yin!” he yelled, “…tell the me the truth, why are they after you?”. His fists were clenched and beginning to glow.

“Look…I tried to be careful ok? But they took my blood in the prison. It wouldn’t have taken them long to scan it and find a match…”

Zhana released his fists and lowered his voice, “Find a match?”

“Next of kin…”

Yen turned away, unable to face his savage, vengeful glare. Zhana stood for a moment, contemplating the meaning of what she was saying. Suddenly his expression dropped from anger to fearful realisation.

“Sweet, holy Avatar…” he said, speaking to her back. “That’s why you are trying to get to Rufus, you’re his daughter aren’t you”.

Yen turned back to face him, “I didn’t know what else to do, he sent me and mom away when I was a kid but when she died, I had no choice but to try and find him…”

Zhana barely registered any of her sentence and began to raise his voice once more, “Rufus, the head of the Blood Lotus terrorists, the most wanted man in the entire world is your father?!”.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

“You aren’t even part of the Blood Lotus at all! Do you have any idea what the Regime will do if they catch you?”

“I know and I…”

“They’ll torture you and broadcast it to the world or, they’ll execute you to send a message. They will _use_ you to get to him, you know, that right? Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”

Tears began to well in Yens eyes, she sniffled a response “I’m sorry ok! You would have never come with me if you knew the truth”.

“Yeah you are right, I wouldn’t have. They sent a Warden after you. You are on your own princess, have a nice life”.

Zhana turned and began to walk away. Yen gathered his strength and called after him, “I know I am the Avatars most wanted right now, I know that! But so are you!”

Zhana stopped in his tracks before slowly turning to face her, “What did you say to me?”.

“They saw you protecting me. That makes you just as wanted as me. They will _never_ stop hunting you, you need that scrambler chip or…”

“Or what?” interrupted Zhana, readying his fists.

“…Or you will be dead within a week. Whether its by a Warden, a soldier or one of your bandit buddies itching for the huge bounty they have no-doubt put out for you. You need to finish what you started Z”.

He stood for a moment, shocked by her aggressive attitude. He couldn’t believe that she was standing up to him. Yen was fighting to hold back her trembling.

Zhana huffed and lowered his hands, “Fine. We get to the peak; I get my chip and then we are done. You can die after that for all I care”. He began to walk past her and started up the mountain trail.

“I’m sorry Z, I never meant for this to happen…” she muttered, but he was already walking away.

-

Yens leg muscles ached and tensed as they made their way up the increasingly steep pathway. The route had narrowed into a small canyon leading skyward. Zhana led the way but had long since passed into unknown territory. He had used the waterfall cave as a hideout but hadn’t ever strayed much further into this area. This was mainly because it was under a strict quarantine by the Regime. He had heard about chemical incident that happened years ago and since then all the roads had been closed off.

Yen kept her head down; it didn’t seem appropriate to ask for a break and with the sun slowly setting they would need to reach the peak soon. Staring at the floor, Yen noticed the dust and rocks slowly dissipate and flatten. Before long, it was clear that they were walking on a very old pathway. The pavement tiles had long since cracked and warped but it was clearly man-made. ‘What was this place?’, Yen thought as she noticed half-crumbled stone pillars standing idly along the path. Zhana had no doubt noticed their presence too but remained silent, trudging up the path.

As they progressed, the pillars and crumbled structures began to appear more prominently as if they were discovering the remnants of an ancient civilization that had been left to rot on this mountain top.

Zhana stopped suddenly, holding up a hand for Yen to do the same.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered.

Zhana stood intently for a moment, “Nothing. Thought I heard something but…”

Yen gasped as a large figure leapt from behind some rubble and grappled Zhana into a headlock. Before either of them could react, the figure was holding a large chrome knife against Zhanas throat.

“Who are you people?” Snarled the hooded figure. Yen couldn’t entirely make out the figure as they were concealed behind Zhana, but she could see a long dark trench coat with a hood. The person seemed to have a scarf covering most of their face.

Yen hurried a reply, “We are just travelling through! We are…”

“You Regime? Don’t think I won’t cut this assholes throat”.

Zhana squirmed, “Do we look like Regime? Let me go or I swear I’ll…”

“If you aren’t Regime then who are you?”

Yen realised the grip holding Zhana in place was tightening, the person was clearly planning to end this conversation with blood.

“We are looking for the Blood Lotus!” Yen called. Zhana shot her a disgusted look.

The figure loosened their grip on Zhana slightly, “Blood Lotus? Why?”

Yen stepped closer to the figure, summoning a new wave of confidence, “Kubo sent us, we came from Sanctum 1”.

After a moment of silence, the figure released Zhana and shoved him toward Yen. They removed their hood and scarf revealing an incredibly attractive young woman. She stood taller than Zhana and had her long brown hair tied back professionally behind her head. There was also a large, thin scar stretched diagonally across her sharp cheekbones. Zhana was momentarily stunned as his rage dissipated at the sight of this incredibly beautiful woman.

“So, you must be the reinforcements. Come with me”. The woman led them up the track, not stopping to wait or check whether they were following. Yen and Zhana looked at each other before chasing after the mysterious stranger.

Further up the trail, the path turned to reveal a large, stone structure carved into the side of the mountain. It was clearly ceremonial, with large ornate pillars holding up the ceiling and old, smashed statues and walkways scattered about the area. The structure clearly continued into the mountain itself, but the entrance way had long since caved in. Looking away from the mountain, the large ceremonial square lead to an enormous viewing platform that looked out over the valley below. This was entranced by a series of stone steps that descended out of view.

The area was lit by some glow rods that had been haphazardly wedged into the ground and gave off a warm, pink hew that danced across the walls and broken mosaics. The woman led Zhana and Yen to a large table in the middle of the square that was littered with papers, scrolls and sacks of indeterminate equipment, each brandishing the Blood Lotus insignia. A small, darkly dressed man stood at the table perusing some documents and readjusted his partly broken spectacles.

Upon approaching the table, the man looked up in surprise at the visitors.

“Richter, our back up finally arrived”.

The man smiled and leaned in to get a closer look at Yen and Zhana, “Oh how splendid, our wait was not in vain”.

The woman did not allow Yen and Zhana to speak before turning to address them, “Welcome to Sirens Peak, I’m Veltra, head of the operation here. How many men do you have? Are they stationed far?”

Yen and Zhana looked at each other. Yen attempted to reply, “Errrmm well…”

“They’ll need to bring their own ammo; we are nearly out. What about vehicles?”

“Vehicles? We don’t really…”

“And where the hell is Kubo? I need to speak to him now!” Veltra shouted, banging her fist on the table.

Yen stepped forward and swallowed, “Kubo…he’s dead. He never made it out of the prison”.

Veltra and Richter looked at each other for a moment. Richter sighed and starred down at the table whilst Veltra stepped closer toward Yin, “What did you say? Kubo is dead?”.

Yen stared back at her, trying to keep her composure but it was hard to ignore that the strong, stoic demeanour that Veltra had met them with had soon dissipated into an expression of deep anguish. It was clear that Kubo had meant quite a lot to her.

“So, where the hell is the back up then?” She asked.

Zhana stepped forward slightly, “I think we are it ma’am. Now if you don’t mind, we have come a real long way to get here and the little lady promised me that you guys could hook me up with a scrambler chip so could we just skip to that please?”.

Veltra shot him a vengeful glance and arched her back, displaying her size and stature more clearly “A scrambler chip? Look at this place, our whole operation is hanging by a thread here. We don’t have any fancy tech with us. It’s all back at base”.

“Well then let’s pack up and head there now shall we…” Zhana gestured toward the exit pathway.

“We can’t leave!” Yelled Richter from behind the table, “The mission isn’t over yet”.

Yen interrupted Zhana before he could respond, “What mission? We can help!”.

Veltra and Richter sighed in unison before Veltra led them all to the balcony. Zhana immediately began protesting as they walked, “Now hold on, we don’t have time for whatever it is you guys are doing up here. I am really just here to bring her…” he said, pointing at Yin, “…There was nothing in the deal about helping you…”.

Veltra stood on at the top of the ornate stairway which trickled all the way down the mountainside, passed several other ancient structures until ending at a larger black, steel building.

“That is our mission”, she nodded.

Yen looked down and squinted at the distant building. It stood as an unfitting wart amongst the rustic countryside and dusty old structures. It was box-like in shape and didn’t appear to have any windows or entrances other than the large doorway at the front, sided by two large watch towers. There was a dusty road leading up to the doorway as well as a series of large chimneys protruding from the roof of the structure, each belching out large plumes of thick, tar and smoke. The smoke was so dense that it was appearing to ink the sky above the area, blanketing it all in a melancholic aura of grey stillness.

“What is that place?” Yen asked innocently.

Zhana eyed up the building and quickly replied, “It’s a Nexus, Regime power plant, right?”.

Veltra maintained her piercing gaze onto the structure, “That’s right. That down there is Nexus Sigma, one of the Regime’s biggest and most secretive power factories”.

Yen was confused, she turned to face Veltra and Richter, “So…what does the Blood Lotus want to with it?”.

Richter pushed his glasses up onto his nose, “You walked all this way, you must have seen it surely?”.

“Seen what?” Zhana asked.

“The Outer Baron…”, Richter replied “…miles and miles of it”.

“So? What’s that got to do with a Nexus plant?”.

Veltra turned to face Zhana, “How did all the plants die? Where did all the livestock go? The land used to be green and full of life but now it’s all dead, why?”.

Zhana shrugged, “I don’t know, the Avatar fought that big demon war and it wrecked everything”.

Veltra laughed out loud, “Ha! You really believe that shit? The Avatar needed power. Power for her army, power for her cities, power for her weapons. To get it, the Regime set up these secret Nexus plants across the country at ancient holy sites…”

“…Why holy sites?” asked Yen.

“Nobody knows. But ever since they started churning out all that pink energy, the Outer Baron started growing and growing and spreading and spreading”.

Richter spoke up, “And based on our calculations, at the rate in which the Baron is expanding: the entire world will be completely inhospitable for human life in a little under 7 years”.

Yen looked shocked whilst Zhana rolled his eyes. “7 years?!” shrieked Yin, “How is that possible? Surely we would know?”.

Richter continued, “The Regime’s propaganda machine works especially hard to hide such facts from the general populous”.

“So, we set out to blow that factory sky-high. A Nexus this big going out of commission will send a ripple throughout the entire Regime. Unfortunately, the mission went south as soon as we got inside. Troops were waiting for us and killed half my men, captured the rest. We are the only ones who made it out.” Veltra starred back at the Nexus with a new sense of reverence.

“That’s when I picked up a broadcast saying that reinforcements were to be freed from a prison in Sanctum 1 and sent to assist”, Richter said, holding up his wind-up radio.

“Oh, I see…” Yen replied, “We were the only ones to make it out of the prison”.

“Well we will have to work with what we have”, Veltra said holding out her fist in front of her, “At nightfall the four of us will storm Nexus Sigma, free the rest of my squad, blow the lid off of that place and then hoof it back to base”.

Yen nodded excitedly, Zhana held out his hands to protest but Veltra interrupted, “And then we can get you your damn chip. But none of us are going anywhere until the mission is complete. You got that?”.

Zhana huffed and agreed, crossing his arms angrily. Yen seemed incredibly excited about joining such an important venture.

“So how come I don’t recognise either of you? Are you new to the Blood Lotus?”.

Yen replied happily, “Well actually Rufus is…”

Zhana quickly jumped in and cut her off “Yes! New recruits that’s us! Death to the Avatar and all that!”.

Veltra seemed suspicious but was too aware of the dire situation that her mission was in to investigate further. “Death to the Avatar!” she called before leaving them to take in the view a little longer.

-

Richter had passed a couple of warm blankets for Zhana and Yen to sleep under while they all wait for the early hours of the morning to start their assault. It was likely that transports would arrive soon after sunup to take the captured Blood Lotus fighters to more permanent holdings. Veltra volunteered to stay up and keep watch over the facility while the others slept, she had a carefully laid out patrol route around the area that she synchronised to intensely.

Yen stirred in her spot on the cold, stone floor; unable to sleep a wink. She couldn’t believe how far she had come in just a couple of weeks. Her quiet, farm life seemed a lifetime ago now that she was preparing to storm a government facility with a band of freedom fighters. Eventually she abandoned the idea of sleep and decided to explore her surroundings a little closer. Veltra had been incredibly stern about them all getting enough sleep before attempting such an impossible feat and so she took care to gingerly remove her blanket and sneak toward a more secluded section of the ruins.

The wind was alive here, whipping through every room and passageway. It gentle lifted her clothes and danced through her hair as she walked, admiring the masterful architecture. The walls, although broken and crumbling, were decorated with incredible mosaics and paintings. Each told a different story of a bygone age. The exact images were difficult to make out in the darkness, but Yen could see faint figures, posed in dramatic combat stances and engaging in historic battles.

“What is all this?” she whispered, feeling her hand over the dusty tapestries.

“The truth…” uttered a nearby voice in the darkness, “…and its in short supply these days”. Richter emerged from the darkness and carrying a burning torch. It illuminated the room in an instant and caused dancing shadows to waltz across the enormous pictures.

“I’m sorry…I couldn’t…” Yen muttered apologetically.

“It’s alright, I couldn’t sleep either. They are beautiful aren’t they”. He said, nodding towards the portrait closest to Yen.

“They are but, what are they? Who are all these people? They look they look like cursed ones.

Richter chuckled and moved to stand beside her, “They are. These tapestries tell us that there was once a time when cursed ones were as common as regular folk”.

Yen frowned, “But didn’t the Avatar beat all of the demons? How could there have been this many cursed ones?”.

“Well the Regime’s historians work extra hard to make sure the past is as they say it is. They have virtually wiped places like this from the planet”.

Yen moved to admire another portrait nearby, “Places like this?”.

“Sacred places. We have only collected scraps of old-world history, but the different cursed ones would meet and meditate in powerful centres like this. Sirens Peak is built in a peculiar way to allow wind to flow freely throughout the structure, possibly to allow cursed ones to practice and grow stronger”.

Yen looked at a large mosaic depicting a young woman in a blue tunic, standing stoically against some form of enormous metal aggressor. “It’s all so insane, it feels like a dream”.

“Indeed, it does. It’s what brought me to the Blood Lotus in the first place. Rufus showed me some of the ancient texts and I knew that from that moment on, I would dedicate myself to learning everything I could about the world. The _true_ world”.

“What about Veltra?” Yen asked, turning to face Richter, “Why does she fight?”.

Richter looked down nervously, “I am not much of a fighter but perhaps it is because I have not known much hardship. Not like Veltra…What she has been through, I fear that the rage will consume her one day. Please be careful with her, Rufus sent me on the mission specifically to keep any eye on her”.

Yen seemed confused, “Keep an eye on her?”.

“Yes…there have been rumours. I shouldn’t be saying this, it isn’t my place. But know this, you must have incredible courage to have gotten here and you must never doubt yourself. The Blood Lotus _needs_ fighters like you, especially in such troubling times”.

Yen understood and nodded; Richter was clearly uncomfortable talking about Veltra in such a way. There was a noticeable conflict within him whenever he thought of her, he clearly cared for her dearly.

They stood and marvelled at the portraits for a while before returning to the sleeping quarters. Sliding back under her blanket, she turned to check on her sleeping companion. She squinted and leaned over to get a clearer look. He was gone.

“I’m afraid I noticed your friend had gone about an hour ago. Seems he is not as dedicated to the cause as we would have hoped”. Richter whispered from the other side of the room.

“He really did it…he really left”.

“Your friend seemed like a fine man, but this was not his fight. Besides, it is probably best that he gets as far from Veltra as he can before she notices that he is gone”.

Yen lay down and wrapped herself in her blanket. She shouldn’t be surprised, Zhana never wanted to get involved with any of this. She had promised him that once they got to Sirens Peak, the Blood Lotus would get him a scrambler chip and he would be free. That promise had been broken. Richter was right, this wasn’t his fight. He needs to go his own way. Yen convinced herself that this was for the best and that she was a member of the Blood Lotus now, a soldier in something much bigger than her and Zhana. She closed her eyes tightly, forcing back the emerging tears. Zhana had gone. Her friend had left her.

-

A light kick from Veltra was enough to wake Yen. The adrenaline of the approaching mission had made it very difficult for her to fall asleep. Her thoughts still concerned Zhana, they had been through so much together but to him it would be nothing more than another page in his book of adventures.

“Richter told me about your friend. What a coward, forget him” Veltra snapped. Yen had become increasingly aware of the rage in her voice, constantly switching her gaze between Veltra’s face and how close her hands were to her blades.

Veltra carried two identical, large knives and kept them concealed in brown, leather sheaths on each side of her hips. She didn’t seem to concern herself with firearms.

“Most of the facility is automated at night, drones and worker bots…” Richter said, slinging a rucksack over his shoulder, “…as long as we keep a low profile then we should be ok”.

“How do you know the place is automated?” Yen asked.

“Richter here managed to hack into the Regime’s secure networks, he can hear pretty much all of their communications”, Veltra said, smiling. The thrill of the fight was clearly something Veltra enjoyed.

Yen readied herself and followed as Veltra lead the team down the sloping, cracked stairway toward the facility below. The area was enveloped in thick, oozing darkness which danced around the outskirts of the monolithic factory. It’s buzzing neon lights were the only visible object in sight, pumping out a garish pink, electronic haze from each window and exhaust pipe.

It took over an hour to reach the entrance to Nexus Sigma, carefully navigating the broken ancient architecture that had been smashed and swept aside to make room for concrete and streel structures containing various pipes, cables and communication equipment.

The lack of personnel worried Yen for a time before Richter explained that top secret facilities like the Nexus plants were often ran by a very small crew due to the closely guarded secrets to their location. No need to waste resources guarding something that no one would ever find. The building was constructed from large black, steel and coated in various machine targets and gadgets – buzzing and whirring as they crept passed.

Richter was tinkering with a gadget that he had retrieved from his back for a short while. Veltra raised an arm, signalling the others to stop before turning to watch Richter fiddle with his peculiar contraption. The machine was small and riddled with loose wires and duct tape. It appeared to be a highly sophisticated device constructed from what looked like: odd scraps of junk.

“Almost got it…” Richter whispered and he pressed various buttons on his device. Eventually, a light on the front of the gadget turned on as he looked up at the surveillance camera above the main entrance. The camera buzzed and began to tilt to the right before it was facing entirely away from the entrance.

“Nice work” Veltra muttered, “Lets move”. She signalled them to follow and dashed through the main doors.

The interior corridors were black and mechanical. A living machine with cybernetic arteries connecting each office, storage chamber and laboratory. The overhead lights were all turned off, drenching the place in an infinite black void. This was broken momentarily as the three began to gingerly traverse the artificial environment when the corridors would illuminate their immediate location before turning off as they passed.

This power-save system for the lights caused the hallways to appear even more labyrinthian, any and all directions were bathed in darkness. Yen worked hard to maintain her composure as they delved deeper into the dark, twisting passageways.

They passed various worker drones, carrying equipment to-and-fro, all working autonomously and oblivious to the sneaking interlopers.

“Watch that the security bots don’t spot you, they have a pretty powerful taser on them”, Veltra warned whilst nodding toward a dormant machine in the corner. These sleeping guardians appeared in almost every room and hallway, all patiently awaiting a sudden alert to wake them up.

Richter was leading the way, checking his device carefully before deciding on a corridor direction. He had explained that the route he was taking them was slow but would avoid any security traps or guards. They would find the holding cells where the surviving members of their squad were being held, rescue them and then destroy the facility with explosive charges. There was even an outdoor courtyard containing some Regime Vert-Birds. Richter was more than capable of flying one and it would have enough room to carry them all out.

Ducking around a final corner, the door to the holding cells lay in front of them. They slowly made their way to it, as Richter scrambled through his bag for a gadget that could help him hack the door panel.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” called a voice in the darkness. Yen span to see a tall, armed security guard reaching for his weapon.

A flash of silver, sped across Yen’s gaze as Veltra flipped her body sideways and embedded her right blade deep into the guard’s neck. Dark droplets of blood began to drip from the blade edge as she quickly retrieved it, carefully catching the body as it fumbled downwards. Silence.

Veltra watched the dark hallway behind them with both hands on her blade grips, ready to inflict further acrobatic fury. Richter sighed in relief after a moment when it became clear that no further patrols were coming. He rapidly pressed some buttons before a gratifying click sound ushered the automatic doors to open.

“Veltra! Is that you?” gasped a croaky voice from behind the cross-crossed laser grid. A man, dressed in rags and satchels similar to Richter and Veltra’s stood up and waved from inside the holding cell. Behind him were six others, slowly clambering to their feet to greet their returning captain.

“We are getting out of here, _all_ of us”, she said in a commanding tone which instantly brought smiles to her crew. Richter flipped a switch nearby which disabled the buzzing laser grid. Veltra rushed into the cell to greet her comrades, helping some to their feet.

Yen stood back, watching and grinning at the soldier’s transformations. Within moments they had gone from dying urchins to proud warriors, standing to attention and ready to return to the fight. This was truly the Blood Lotus she had dreamed about – everyday folk who are never willing to give up, no matter what the Regime throws at them.

“The mission is still a go, so let’s get this done”, she called out the squad, rousing some small cheers from the crew. Turning to leave, the laser grid burst into life and thrusted Veltra back into the cell, painfully shoving a Blood Lotus soldier as she fell. Yen gasped and turned to Richter.

“I’m afraid there has been a bit of a change to the plan”, Richter said having successfully reactivated the holding cell.

“Richter, what fuck is this?” Veltra called.

“You don’t get to talk to me like that anymore Veltra, not ever!” he snarled.

Yen stepped closer to him, “Richter what are you doing?”.

He quickly retrieved a handgun from his satchel and pointed it at Yen. “Stay where you are little girl or I _will_ put you down”.

“The Blood Lotus is over. It’s all over”.

-

_Open the gate…_

The voice pounded inside his head with every step he took. Where was he even going? Was he dreaming?

_South wall…secret way…open the gate…_

-

“I’ll kill you Richter, you hear me?! When I get out of here you _will_ see the end of my blades” Veltra snarled.

Richter gave her a dismissive wave as more armed Regime guards entered the room and stood to attention. She continued to shout and threaten him even as he turned away.

“Enough!” he yelled, “Do you even know what it is like to live this way? I came to Rufus all those years ago because I wanted to learn, learn about the world, its history and the Avatar”.

Richter garnished his lament with a gentle pace around the room, “He promised he that he would show me things that the Regime would rather keep hidden away. _Hidden_ truths. But you know what I got? Years of living in gutters, running from gunfire all in the service of an insane idealist”.

“Watch your tone asshole, Rufus is a great man” Veltra called.

“He is insane Veltra! Why can’t anyone else see it? He wants to beat the Regime? The Avatar? They _are_ the world Veltra, and that is something we all need to wake up and realise. That’s what I did. I had been planning to for months but could never find the right moment, until a few nights ago when I got the message…”

Yen stepped toward the laser grid, “Message? What message?”.

Richter cracked a smile, “I was listening in on encrypted Regime channels, _Tong Prison mass riot – two wanted fugitives._ One was a low-level street thug, but the other…” Richter began to laugh.

Yin’s heart sank in her chest, “Richter please don’t…”

“You don’t even know what you have here do you? We are in the company of quite the VIP”.

Veltra turned toward Yen and shot her a confused look.

“They weren’t able to verify her true-identity until after they had escaped the prison, but it didn’t take much detective work to determine that she had spoken to our good friend Kubo and that she would be coming straight to us. All I had to do was keep us on that hilltop until _back up_ arrived”.

“You didn’t contact anyone from the Lotus, there was never anyone else coming was there?” Veltra asked.

“Oh, I did make contact with someone, a few high-ranking Regime figures offering them a deal. They grant me immunity and a sizable fortune – I give them an entire platoon of Blood Lotus fanatics with one little bonus: ol’Rufus’s very own, little lost daughter”.

The entire cell recoiled and gasped. Some soldiers began whispering and muttering to each other. Yen stood in the centre, horrified by the gossip and shocked eyes around her.

“Is that true Yin?” Veltra asked, “Your…his daughter?”

Yen nodded, shutting her eyes tight so as to not let any tears escape.

“That’s right ladies and gentlemen, we have in our midst the daughter of the most wanted man in the world. When I promised the Regime that, I was able to write my own cheque. Now get comfortable because in a few hours they will arrive in full force to take me away to my new life of luxury and wealth and you all away to, well…something not quite so lovely”.

“Richter you spineless son of a bitch, do you really think the Regime is going to pay up? They are just going to throw you in with the rest of us and take Yen. You will get nothing!” Veltra snarled.

Eventually Richter’s patience could last no longer, even in his current position of power he had allowed Veltra to _get_ to him. With a click of his holster, Richter retrieved his pistol.

Yen gasped for a moment as the fire erupted from the end of the barrel. A clean shot through the left eyeball caused Veltra’s body to suddenly jerk and crumble backwards in recoil. A few cursed Lotus were desperately trying to pull the earth up to support her but were powerless through the steel plates tiling the ground. Her comrades rushed to her aid, but she just lay, lifelessly oblivious to any of the panic around her.

-

_Secret way…open the gate…_

Zhanas legs ached. How far had he walked? Was he still dreaming? He could feel the pain in his legs but could not make out the dizzying landscape around him. He had felt multiple differing sensations lately. There was a time when he felt as if he were descending a stairway, walking across sand. He had heard echoing water drops and cold splashes of water at his feet. His hands had gripped metal occasionally. He had remembered the cold grip in his palms but felt powerless in their operation. It was as if he was merely a passenger in his own body, sightless and unaware of the passage of time.

He had to focus, if he couldn’t then his body would wander without him forever. How had this happened? He had felt strangely since entering Sirens Peak, like the voice in his head was finally becoming clear. Could this voice be guiding his body? All he could think of was the words it repeated over and over: _open the gate…open the gate…descend into the dark…descend…”._

Nothing would block it out, no matter how hard he tried. With every time it repeated, he felt his puppet body take another step or around another corner. He no longer felt the water at his feet, he was somewhere cold alive with electricity. His pace quickened.

 _Woosh_. Was that a door opening? Where was he? Zhana _needed_ to ground himself if he was to regain control. He raced his mind through his memories before seeing Yen’s tears as he yelled at her on the hilltop. He felt his rage return but relaxed upon examining the image of her face. She was scared, terrified of what Zhana would think of her now that he knew her secret. She was just in a bad situation and trying to survive. This had been Zhana’s entire life. The rage subsided to the oozing regret, he wanted to apologise but knew he would never get the chance. “Yen…I’m sorry”.

The words echoed around the room. Zhana looked for the first time and found himself in a steel, high tech corridor facing a large blast door. His arms twitched and he rejoiced, finally able to control his body once more. The voice was still whispering in his head but now he could think over it and act by his own will. It was an alien sensation to sleep in an ancient ruin, only to fully awaken in such an artificial, electronic environment with no clue as to how he had gotten there.

The blast door was marked CORE. Why had he been guided to this place? The voice in his head had guided him his entire life to here, but why?

Although Zhana had broken free of his subconscious control, he knew he had to find out what it was all for. He reached the door panel and opened the large, thick doors. This was his destiny.

The electronic blast doors hissed as they began to separate, revealing a large oval room with various machinery and heavy cables scattered throughout. The tech appeared to be focused around a central point on the far side of the room. Zhana shielded his eyes from the intense pink light emanating from the large archway in front of him. It was as if a miniature pink sun had been miniaturised and held captive inside this chamber. Squinting, Zhana spied various Regime scientists and engineers stationed at various control panels. His eyes were drawn to two large brown cylinders stood on either side of the bright pink light, each decorated with enormous decors reading ENERGY FIELD DAMPENER.

_Open the gate…Unleash the power within…Open the gate…_

Zhana felt his mind slipping once more, with every step closer to the bright pink light, he could feel the fire inside of him building. His hands felt hot, as if they were engulfed in flame. Was he drawing power from this energy field? What was all of this? As the overwhelming power began to take over his every thought, he felt as if something was lacking. He could feel the energy screaming out to him through invisible veil. The dampeners. They were holding it all back.

Gasps began to appear around the room as the scientists started to notice the zombie in tattered clothing, walking toward the energy source in a deep trance. Their shouts went unheard as Zhana continued to walk.

“Its one of the prisoners!” shouted one, “Aren’t they supposed to be taken care of by now?” called another.

Their words slipped over Zhana with little impact. The power grew stronger with every step.

“He must be one of the ones they caught today!” They continued to shout, “Call security! Everybody evacuate!”.

The scientists and engineers began to hastily exist the room, some dropping important documents and flip data tablets as they ran.

Prisoners…Caught today…

Zhana tried to concentrate on these words but his feet continued to walk. He _had_ to break the dampeners and release the power within. Nothing else matters.

Prisoners…Yin…

He could see her in his mind, calling out to him. He saw her at the prison, clumsily bashing into him. Her saw her boldly walking out into the Outer Baron, unaware of the dangers that awaited her. He saw her blinding the bandits in the forest and finding her beyond the waterfall. She was in trouble and right now he was her only hope.

Zhana winced as fought to hold his feet. His strength was no longer his own as it compelled him to complete whatever destiny it had decided for him.

He tensed and summoned all the strength that he could and screamed “Fuck Destiny!”. He opened his eyes and his body was his own once more. Time to move.

-

Yen stood horrified next to Velra’s body as Richter shot her another smirk. The large group of high-tech equipped guards behind him stood firm, ready to execute any prisoner that attempted to fight back.

Suddenly, a crackle was heard above them and the room fell into pitch darkness. “A power cut?” a voice near Yen uttered. Then she noticed: the laser grid was gone.

“Nobody move!” yelled a sinister sounding guard as weapons began to click in front of her, loaded and ready to fire. One by one, sets of glowing pink eyes buzzed into life around the room, dancing playfully in the darkness.

Richter’s voice emerged from the shadowy depths, “Don’t try anything, my men are all equipped with night vision. Anybody moves and they _will_ be put down”. His voice was noticeably shaken. Richter had lived every moment of his life to an intricate plan and so an abstract, chaotic element such as what beheld him – worried him to his core.

“Yen!” called a familiar voice nearby, “Now!”.

A lone fireball lit up the room from an entranceway to the side of the packed prison cell. For an instant Yen caught a glimpse of Zhana. He had come back for her.

Jumping into action she harnessed the fireball as it passed in front of her and screamed. It halted in place and exploded in a wave of blinding white light, momentarily illuminating the entire room and casting long reaching shadows up across the walls to touch the ceiling. The guards screamed in agony as their night vision goggles amplified the already sun-like strength of Yens flash.

This was their chance.

Screams and cheers erupted as Yen felt the thunder of stampeding footsteps all around her.

“Death to the Avatar!” The mob cheered.

Flashes of fire and streams of water penetrated the darkness all throughout the room. Gun fire popped erratically all around her and she charged into the darkness in front of her, wielding one of Veltra’s silver blades.

The emergency lights thumped the room back into a light glow, allowing Yen to view the chaotic scuffle happening all around her. Cursed ones were hurling earth, fire, water and air wherever the Regime troops stood. Some Blood Lotus lay bullet riddled and lifeless on the floor alongside scorched soldiers.

A guard loaded his weapon and took aim at Yen with a dead eye aimed at her head. She darted left and right, forcing the soldier to adjust his aim. Upon squeezing the trigger, Yen raised her hand and flashed another nearby fireball brightly in his face. The guard recoiled for a moment as she drove the blade deep into his belly.

“Pull back!” yelled the guards, as the battle began to sway in the Blood Lotus’ favour. Yen spun around, sensing another incoming attacker but held back at the last moment. It was Zhana.

Zhana barely recognised the blood-soaked, blade wielding warrior in front of him.

“You came back…” she muttered.

Zhana smiled, “Well I couldn’t just let you take all the credit”.

Two more guards emerged from the scuffle and aimed at Zhana and Yen. Yen ducked under the barrel of the first guards’ rifle and sliced his knees with her blade. Zhana took the opportunity to rush the second guard with a fireball, quickly followed by a strong kick to the chest.

The two stood shoulder-to-shoulder, panting next to their defeated combatants. Yen suddenly caught a glimpse of something beyond the slowly dissipating crowd of battle.

“Richter!” she called, before giving chase. Zhana found himself caught up with another group of scattered Regime troopers, not noticing his companion had darted away.

She sliced her blade through the air toward Richter as he bolted for an escape passageway near the rear side of the detention area. Sensing her attack, he ducked and rolled before aiming his gun back at the girl. Yen gasped and rolled behind cover, narrowly dodging several shots ricocheting loudly around her. Tumbling behind a steel pillar, she scrambled to find her blade. It was gone.

Footsteps slowed as Richter regained him composure. He had spotted Yen’s weapon, cast clumsily on the ground nearby and knew that once more _he_ was the one with the edge. Yen desperately looked around for options, but it was too late. A final smile was Richter’s parting gift as he aimed the barrel down at Yen.

With a swoosh, Veltra thrusted her blade deep into Richter’s side. He screamed as she retrieved the weapon and slashed ferociously at his face before launching her heavy boot into his chest with the force of a raging avalanche, sending him flying across the room into a bloody, beaten heap.

“Death to the Avatar. Death to traitors”, she grunted, before spitting at his crumbled body.

Yen leapt up with an enormous smile and embraced her comrade, “Veltra, you’re alive!”.

“More or less alive” she replied, signalling to her blood-soaked eye patch fashioned from loose cloth.

Looking around, they could see that the Regime troops were beginning to flee with many Blood Lotus fighters cheering loudly at their impending victory.

“Captain…” one fighter called, approaching Veltra and Yen, “…the Reggies are retreating. What’s the order?”.

Veltra was wheezing, still noticeably out of breath. Yen noticed her fatigue and spoke up “Get everyone to the vehicle hangar and get us a ride out of here”.

The fighter looked confused at this order and signalled toward Veltra. She sniggered back at him “I think we best do what the kid says, hop to it”. The soldier nodded and began leading the other fighters away.

“We didn’t blow the place, but at least we can escape with our lives” Veltra muttered, noticeably disappointed.

“I might be able to help with that actually” Zhana approached the ladies from nearby.

“Well look who decided to grow a spine after all” Veltra belched toward him, “I’m glad to have you back”.

He smiled and nodded in her direction before continuing, “I found the core of this place, looks like there are some machines holding back the insane power levels. I figure that if we trash them, then it’ll take this whole place with it”.

Veltra smiled, “Looks like we found our bomb”.

Yen grabbed her dropped blade and stood to attention, “Lead the way”.

-

Alarms blared out wildly around them as they hurried through the winding steel corridors. Red warning lights lit up each passageway and odd, remaining personnel desperately scuttled to the nearest exit.

Yen was holding Veltra up as she limped along with her companions. The further they ventured, the more abandoned the facility became with all remaining staff having already evacuated. This meant that their route to the central core was completely unhindered.

Arriving at the large steel blast doors, Zhana began punching buttons on the nearby console “In here!”. The doors hissed and began to slowly separate. They dashed inside, shielding their eyes from the pulsating pink light oozing out from the arch way in the centre. Zhana revelled at the lack of activity on his second trip to this room, noting the discarded notepads and tech dropped clumsily on the walkways.

Yen and Zhana separated and found themselves wildly pressing buttons and flicking switches on any of the consoles nearby.

“How do we shut off the dampeners?” Yen yelled across the room.

“No clue, try every button!” Zhana shouted back.

Their attention was immediately snatched away by Veltra as she screamed in pain whilst straining her muscles toward the leftmost dampener. With a loud crash her blade pierced the outer casing, allowing her to grab the innards with her ground curse and scatter them in a violent, metallic explosion.

“…Or that. That works too”, smiled Zhana.

Veltra collapsed to her knees and Yen dashed over to catch her. The manoeuvre had caused a massive strain on Veltra’s already ravaged body. She knelt, panting in agony as Yen did her best to comfort her. Zhana marvelled as the pulsing pink light began to grow rapidly in front of them, as if emanating from some alien and viscous protrusion. Bolts of pink electricity began to strike from the centre of the light with escalating violence and intensity.

Shielding his eyes with his arms, Zhana could feel a surge of power flowing through him. As the light intensified and grew, so did the fire within him. He gritted his teeth to maintain control of his body as it earned to unleash the raging storm, he felt pulsing in his fists. Interestingly, neither Yen nor Veltra showed any signs of being affected by the increase in power.

_The gate…release its power…_

The voice in his head continued to repeat such phrases, willing him to break the final dampener.

Thrashing toward the righthand dampener, Zhana could immediately see that his command over his fire curse had significantly increased in power. The fires he threw were large and wild, each an explosion of their own.

The dampeners cracked and tumbled, revealing the precious materials within. He was almost through.

“No further Vermin!” snarled a nearby voice.

The three of them turned to the blast doors and saw a tall man standing in the entrance way brandishing a long, silver sword. It was Warden Hon.

Stepping into the room, weapon in hand: The Warden glared at Zhana with angry and savagery. His robes were noticeably tattered and torn in places, matching his dishevelled hair and bruised skin.

“Holy shit…” muttered Veltra, “…It’s a Warden!”.

With a flurry of elegant motion, Hon swooped both Yen and Veltra across the room on a carpet of water, crashing them violently into the corridor beyond the blast doors.

Zhana took his chance and lobbed a fireball at the door panel. The doors buzzed and began to close. Yen rolled onto his side to catch a glimpse of Zhana before the doors would permanently seal.

“Get out of here!” he called, “I’ll give you as much time as I can!”. _Thunk._ The doors collided at their centre point and fell silent.

Yen spent a few moments banging on the door, but it was to no avail. They were closed for good. Zhana had chosen certain death so that she might have a chance of escaping.

-

“Didn’t you die?” snarked Zhana as he readied his fighting stance.

Hon smiled and chuckled, “You cannot kill a disciple of the almighty”.

Zhana’s felt the pink light wash over him as he clenched a fist and hurled a fast fireball at the Wardens face. With lightning fast reactions, Hon waved his hand: blocking the missile with a splash of water.

“Impressive, your powers have increased it seems…” Hon mumbled.

Zhana smiled confidently, “Yeah you’ll find I’m full of surprises”.

Hon began to unfasten his robes. Slowly he unsheathed his upper body unveiling the bare skin underneath. “You forget that my gift was given by the Avatar herself and so I strike with divine blessing”.

His robes dropped to the floor revealing a muscled and deeply scarred torso. The fabric rope fastening his trousers glistened in the light as Zhana spied a multitude of grotesque pipes and tubes weaving in and out of the Wardens chest and neck. Clenching his teeth, Hon squirmed as the tubes began to illuminate with pink light as it started to pump the glowing substance throughout his body. With a loud, erupting battle cry: Hon unleashed a flurry of lethal water strikes upon Zhana.

Ducking and weaving around the room, Zhana dodged the strikes but remaining unscathed was an impossibility. Hon’s movements were graceful and direct, allowing Zhana little chance to manoeuvre freely.

Gathering what strength, he could from the pink energy lighting up the room, Zhana fathomed a few fireballs and tossed them aggressively at his target. Hon did not flinch or stray from his path. Each fiery projectile was wistfully snuffed out with effortless pops of water vapour. Further strikes from Hon sent Zhana crashing, painfully around the room.

“In here!” yelled Yen, guiding Veltra into a room on their way to the hangar. By this point Veltra was being held up by Yen almost entirely with every additional step draining her dwindling reserves of energy.

Veltra was conscious and aware that the room Yen was hoisting her into was not the hangar but possessed little strength to argue.

The security office was small and designed for no more than two personnel at a time. These two would be placed at the desk and stare at the large array of monitors stretching to the ceiling, each showing a fuzzy rendition of each room throughout Nexus Sigma via security camera.

Yen wasted no time in dropping Veltra into a nearby seat before punching away at the control panel. Within a few presses: she was faced with the grainy, monochrome image of her friend being savagely beaten by Warden Hon.

“Come on…come on…please work…” she pleaded at the machine as she began to furiously tap, scroll and click.

“What are you…doing…” Veltra mumbled out loud.

“Got it!” Yen cheered as the monitor flashed the word ACTIVE in bold, green text.

The small security bot in the corner of the core beeped into life and began rolling toward Warden Hon. Yen gripped the steering joystick and readied the powerful shock baton on the end of the bot’s umbilical arm.

Hon laughed maniacally as he continued to barrage Zhana with a blitz of aquatic needles and spears.

“My water shall forever snuff out your flame!” he shouted as he summoned the totality of his strength with wide and large arm movements. In front of him, he began to gather all the water he could into a central, enormous blob of liquid.

Standing over Zhana, who knelt battered and defeated in front of him: Hon lowered the water sphere down over Zhana’s body, engulfing him entirely. Zhana swayed frantically amongst the surreal water cocoon he had been encased in, gasping for air.

As the bot approached closer, Hon chuckled to himself; “cute, but futile”. He swung his sword at the small machine, flinging it wildly across the room: all the while maintaining his composure and control over the large bulge of water.

The robot crashed violently across the floor, tumbling onto itself. The wheels span momentarily in the air, fruitlessly trying to regain its footing and continue but it was no use. With the machine capsized, it was useless.

Hon laughed at his drowning opponent, “No one will change your fate heathen, your road ends here and now!”.

The machine was broken and paralysed, but Yen had not given up. In his haste, Hon had inadvertently launched the robot right up against the one remaining dampener. Desperately hitting the button and leaning the joystick forward, Yen powered up the shock baton and lurched the arm straight into the open wound of the dampener.

Boom.

The room erupted into chaos as the power core belched out swathes of dazzling pink plasma in every direction. Yen stumbled as the entire Nexus shook and rumbled. Her and Veltra starred eagerly at the screen, trying to ignore the explosions and earthquakes happening all around them.

“No!” screamed Hon, feeling the impending meltdown. Incredibly, even with the boundless booms and crashes, taring the ceiling down above them: Hon managed to hold onto his water sphere, refusing to let it dissipate.

Zhana closed his eyes as the darkness began to consume him. Suddenly, the water surrounding him began to warm. The pink glow washed over him, now unleashed and with infinite intensity.

_I am…I am…UNLEASHED._

Zhana’s eyes shot open and flowed as flames erupted from his eye sockets. He stood up, completely unaffected by the water engulfing him and stood firm, glaring with god-like white fiery eyes.

“What is this?!” Screamed Hon, “How is this possible?”.

In an instant, Zhana’s entire body burst into a fiery blaze, boiling all the water around him into a mist of white hot, scolding steam.

The volcanic mist hissed loudly as it scorched against Hon’s exposed body, melting large chunks of skin from his head and chest. He dropped the sword and grasped his sizzled face, yelping in agony.

Veltra and Yen watched as the fires weakened around Zhana, revealing a confident and controlled battle stance.

Hon snarled at him “Impossible!”, before hurling multiple water spears at his opponent. Zhana breathed calmly and began to move his body in a delicate dance, gracefully willing the flames around him to collide with each water spike – evaporating each into further hot steam to fall upon his enemy.

Yen tried to understand his movements. She could clearly see that in this strange, trance-like state: Zhana was demonstrating an elegant display of gestures and motion that no longer treated the flames like clumsy projectiles but creatures of their own, dancing with impossible loyalty alongside him.

“How is he doing that?” she muttered.

Veltra leaned closer toward the monitor with a noticeably shocked expression, “It can’t be…I thought it was just a legend…”

“Legend? What do you mean?” asked Yen.

Veltra paused for a moment, contemplating the gravity of what she was seeing on the monitor “he is…he’s _bending”._

 _“_ He’s what?”

Zhana motioned forward, sending further blasts into his enemy with impeccable precision and accuracy before sweeping up the fallen sword into his hands. Holding his new weapon at the ready, he charged the blade with a raging fire stretching from the hilt to the tip.

Hon coughed and spluttered, “What are you?! Tell me! Say Something!”.

Zhana charged forward, launching himself into the air with a majesty of careful somersaults before landing with a spin, instantly decapitating the Warden with his fiery blade.

Pausing for a moment, he uttered a single phrase at his fallen foe.

_Death to the Avatar._

-

The security room shook violently, sending Yen tumbling to the ground. On the monitor she saw Zhana standing firm as the purple light of the core expanded and engulfed the entire room, instantly cutting the security feed.

“Ok, we HAVE to go now!” shouted Veltra, helping Yen to her feet before limping toward the door. A few moments later, Yen joined her and began helping her escape down the crumbling corridor. Pillars and ceiling panels collapsed around them, forcing Yen to carefully manoeuvre herself and Veltra away from the explosions and tumbling debris on their way to the hangar.

Upon entering the large hangar area, Yen noticed that the roof had been opened and that only a single Vert-Bird remained on the platform, its propellers already whirring and ready to go.

A Blood Lotus loyalist helped the two of them on board and sat them down before signalling for the pilot to ascend. The craft spluttered and shook, and the engines buzzed into life, roaring the vehicle high into the air and out of the roof. Below them Yen could see Nexus Sigma exploding piece-by-piece in a flurry of pink fire smashing out of the sides and roof.

Levitating higher and increasing speed, the vehicle had successfully reached a safe distant and began to cruise into the clouds. Cheers erupted around the craft as the Blood Lotus celebrated their incredible victory. Yen stared silently down at the exploding building and remembered her friend and the sacrifice he had made for her.

Veltra bruised, burned and bloodied, leaned toward her, “He was a brave man. An asshole, but he died for something. If only people could see what he did. He actually killed a Warden!”.

Yen smirked and turned to face her, “They will see, _we_ will show them”, she said holding up the memory disc from the security room.

Veltra shot her a respectful smile, “Well holy shit, you got the tape. If people saw it, it could start a revolution. Rufus will want to see this”.

“Rufus? My father?”

“Yeah, I’d say it was time you two finally met”.

The Vert-Bird chugged and spluttered as it carried Yen into the sky and toward her new life.

-

The ground beneath Zhana’s body was dry and course. Rhythmic vibrations and far off earthquakes slowly stirred him into consciousness. Rubbing his eyes, he climbed to his feet in attempt to make sense of his situation. The last thing he could remember was losing control to the immense power in the core before being engulfed by the explosion. Had he survived? Or was this some sort of tangible afterlife?

His vision began to focus allowing him to finally establish the scale of his immediate surroundings. He found himself in a vast, dark desert blanketed with an ash-soaked sky. Flickers of pink, fluorescent lightning pierced the smog in the distance, tessellating with the erratic ground tremors. Scouring the endless wastes before him, he was surprised at how little he could see. No buildings, no structures, no vegetation, no life. This hellish oblivion would not be too far from the judgemental afterlife Zhana always imagined for himself.

_Descend into the darkness…_

The voice he had heard his entire life spoke with a clarity he was unfamiliar with. No longer muffled within the constraints of his own thoughts but loud and alive. He could sense its direction ahead and so intently followed each echo and uttering with a childish curiosity. Approaching a large array of nearby boulders, Zhana tracked the voice to a small, dark opening in the ground nestled tidily betwixt two of the larger rocks.

Before descending, Zhana took a final look at the endless desolation he had awoken to. It was unearthly in design; however, the uncanny atmosphere was exacerbated by bright pink lights dotted along the horizon. The lights seemed to bulge similarly to the Nexus power core, as if a mirror to their Nexus counterparts.

Ducking down into the underground passageway, Zhana could still heard the distant sounds of thunder whisking across the lifeless landscape.

_Closer…Closer…_

Soon Zhana found himself traversing a long, dark tunnel. There was no light in any direction, leaving Zhana blind and paralysed in an ocean of oppressive blackness. He stopped walking as in such conditions, walking was as irrelevant as squinting. Suddenly, a faint light began to crawl toward him from a far-off chamber in the darkness. As the light crept further, Zhana realised that this was no natural light: it was harsh, direct and as red as blood from a corpse. The red mist washed over him as he tried desperately to identify its source. After a moment, he heard a familiar voice.

_Child…You have arrived._

Zhana peered gingerly into the darkness, “It’s you isn’t it, the voice in my head. All these years”.

_It has taken all my remaining strength to guide you to this place. To this moment._

He had heard the voice for as long as he could remember but now, in this cave the voice was far more alive and deep. Anger and rage seemed to permeate through each syllable, shaking Zhana to his core.

“What do you want from me? What is all of this about?” he asked blindly into the cave.

_The Avatar has worked tirelessly to drain this place. A means to fuel her empire. To fuel her power. Her greed will soon bleed this world into a silent death. She must be challenged before all is lost._

Zhana laughed at this, “Challenged? You are talking about a God! How is anyone supposed to challenge that?”

_SHE IS NO GOD._

_She has forgotten her place. She has forgotten, as I once did, the frailty and importance of the great balance. Her lust for Order has crippled this world to feed hers. But one cannot live without the other. When this world dies, so will yours. You have already seen it haven’t you? The deathly plague has begun to claim your world._

_“_ Deathly plague? Wait…Do you mean like the Outer Baron?”

_It grows each passing day. Soon it will consume you all and her quest for Order will have been for naught. Perhaps obliteration was her mission all along._

“So, what do we do then? How do we stop it?” he called, maintaining his stance as the red light began to brighten.

_The Avatar of Order MUST BE CHALLENGED. Chaos must be unleashed. A HARBINGER must rise!_

“Harbinger?” he asked, shaking suddenly as the redness intensified before him, as if gripping him by the throat. “Who the hell are you anyway?”

_I am the RUMBLE in the darkness._

_I am the one whom, for an age,_

_Has Listened_

_And Waited…_

_My name is Vaatu. And I have a proposition for you._


End file.
